Decode
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: something was off with Chris.Everyone knew it and worried about the human who had given them a home and made them feel welcome.But Chris wasn't Chris.Chris was Rissa, chris's older twin sister pretending to be the brother that had died.FEM Chris!new 22
1. Chapter 1

Decode-

Chapter 1

Something odd

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There was something odd about Christopher Thorndike. Sonic had thought so before, when he had first come to this world. And he thought so now as he sat up on the terrace attached to Chris's bedroom, watching the fourteen year old exercises with Mr. Tanaka.

Tanaka had been teaching Chis martial arts for the past two or three months, and while that in itself wasn't very unusual from Sonic's view point. What was odd was the way that Chris seemed to pick the moves up, among other things that the hedgehog had noticed. He moved different. He actions were more graceful and fluid.

His attacks and counter attacks were very well thought out. And executed even better.

Sonic leaned forward a little bit on the railing that he had been sitting on for the past hour, his emerald green eyes studying the teen in the yard below as Tanaka attacked and was again, for what had to be the hundredth time in the past ten minutes, was felled by a well placed blow to his legs and another to his stomach, then the last one, the kill shot; a lightening quick chop to the pressure point at the back of the neck.

Tanaka went down. His body seemingly falling in slow motion to the unblinking hedgehog. Tanaka's body hit the ground with a dull thud and just lay there. Twitching for a second before going still. Sonic blinked and propped an elbow on one of his legs and let out a low whistle.

_Wow._ Chris really hadn't been kidding when he said he wouldn't go _easy_ on the Japanese man. Sonic mused as he heard the terrace door open and the soft click on Chuck's shoes on the white marble stone as he came up behind Sonic.

Sonic's ears twitched a little bit as Chuck rested his elbows on the railing a foot or so from Sonic and leaned over a little bit and looked at the boy and grinned. "Mmm, knocked him out cold again."

Sonic nodded his head mutely. He couldn't really think of anything to say at the moment anyways. "Yup." Sonic finally said in a light, almost breathy tone that sounded foreign to his own ears.

"I wish that I could say that I'm surprised, but I'd be lying. Poor Tanaka, he'll be devastated to know that Chris has out grown him as a teacher." Chuck said after a moment or two of silence as Chris leaned over and picked up the discarded black and royal blue jacket that he had taken off earlier and quietly slipped it back on before leaning down at the waist and picking up his wallet and several other things before walking up the steps to the mansion and slipping inside for a moment before coming back outside with Tails behind him.

Apparently to help him move Tanaka inside so that he wouldn't wake up outside again.

Sonic was quiet for a second, mulling over Chuck's words as he mentally went over some of the other things that he found odd about Chris and wondered if he should just _ask_ the question that had been bothering him for a while now and see what Chuck had to say about it. But in the end the hedgehog didn't want to see too nosy (like Amy) or pushy (like Amy, again) and decided to simply keep his mouth shut and continue to quietly observe the teen that he owed a life debt too.

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"Thanks for helping me carry him in Tails." Chris said almost absent mindedly as they set Tanaka on the deep blue sofa in the living room. Tails grunted as he set his end of Tanaka's surprisingly heavy body down and straitened his spine, his two tails twitching a little bit.

"No problem Chris. That's what friends are for. Right?"

Chris looked at him with an unfathomable expression on his face for a moment, that looked just slightly out of place on his face to Tails, then nodded his head slightly. "Yeah. That's what friends are for."

Tails smiled a little bit despite the distinct feeling that something, somewhere was horribly wrong. Or maybe that feeling stemmed from the fact that Chris hadn't been acting like himself since the Ark incident and he was worried about the boy.

"Chris..." Tails started to ask the boy if he was okay, god knew that he wanted to let Chris know that he could talk to him and the others about whatever was on his mind. But for some strange reason that he couldn't explain, the moment that Chris's eyes flickered to his face, his voice suddenly fell silent and he couldn't speak no matter how many times he tried to force the words out. It was weird really.

"I'm going to my room to take a nap. I'll see you later Tails." Chris said in his usual quiet, almost husky voice as he turned on his heel and stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and walked out of the room without another word.

Tails tried again to say something, anything before Chris was out of ear shot, but still couldn't speak and with a frustrated, low _animalistic_ growl, he gave up and walked off to see if he could find Amy or something.

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Chris walked down the hallway to the stairs, pausing briefly when the mansion's cook and maid, Miss Ella came out of the study and looked at her. "Oh master Christopher-" Chris cringed a little bit at the woman's words. But Ella didn't notice. "You got another package in the mail-" Ella said almost happily as she stuffed her duster in her apron. Chis tensed.

"You didn't open it did you?"

Ella looked a little startled by the question. "No. Master Chris. The box was addressed to _you_, so I did not open it." Chris relaxed a little bit, but not much.

"Alright. Thanks Ella. I'm going to go to my room now. Let me know if you need me for anything." Chris said as he brushed by her and all but ran the rest of the way to the stairs and disappeared up the red carpeted steps.

Another package. Chris couldn't believe that the person who knew his-

She shakes her head and stops as she sees her reflection in a mirror hanging on the wall. No. That isn't right. She's not a boy. She merely thought of herself as one because if she didn't, her parents would never be able to bear the weight of their grief.

The grief of losing her twin brother, Christopher.

It had happened over four years ago when she had been in a gang. It had simply been a little innocent fun that had spiraled out of control.

The gang itself hadn't been put together to hurt people. Quiet the opposite, she had wanted to help people. And that had been her function. The gangs function. Yet it had all gone so horribly wrong when one of her friends had gotten on drugs and had decided that they should make people fear them instead.

She had tried-oh god she had tried to stop him, and the others. But they had been too interested in what the gang could do for them to care that what they were doing was wrong. The end result had been a beating that had nearly killed her, and her twin brother's death in a shooting while he had been on his way to school.

One of her former friends had run up behind him with a gun and-

She closed her eyes and fought back the wave of dizziness mingled with guilt and grief at what she had indirectly done to her brother. She staggered a little bit as she passed the mirror and her shoulder slammed into the wall, and she stood there simply frozen in place, breathing as her stomach lurched.

Her parents hadn't been able to deal with losing Chris and as such had made her take his place when they had buried him in a grave with her name on it.

About a year after that, before she had even met Sonic and the others; someone had started sending threatening messages to her home. Someone that she believed had been the one who had ordered the hit on her brother.

The messages were always short, and blood chilling.

Whoever it was sending the packages,_ knew_ that she wasn't her brother. And they were hell bent on making her life miserable.

She took several seconds to collect herself, then pushed away from the wall and walked the remaining length of hallway to her brother's room (now hers because the illusion that she was Chris had to be upheld under all circumstances) and opened the door and stepped inside and looked around.

She couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable every time she stepped through the door. Chris's room had been designed solely for his comfort and happiness. The walls were painted a light off cream color, the carpet and curtains were a deep scarlet red. Matching the bed sheets, and the top on his canopy bed.

The red was accented by gold.

Gold trim, gold woven cords to hold the curtains back from the windows.

The massive queen sized bed rested against the wall across from the window, and to her left was a closet, and a shelf with a small stereo surrounded by CD's that she never listened too. To her right was a nice private bathroom, and a dresser.

Chris had never had any toys in here, so she hadn't had to worry about keeping any. She saw the small brown box sitting on the desk, on top of a pile of National Geographic magazines and quietly closed the door behind her and made her way over to the desk and picked up the letter opener that Ella must have left for her and used it to cut the tape sealing the package closed and stopped cold when a rancid, nauseating smell wafted up.

She jerked and dropped the letter opener and clapped a hand over her nose and mouth and tried to keep her stomach from rebelling against the strong scent of blood and decay as she grabbed a pen and used it to open one side of the box and gagged when she saw what looked like the head of a chiwawa sitting in the bottom of the box. "Oh god-" She breathed as she tried to control her gag reflex as she heard slight foot steps just outside of the bedroom door.

_Oh shit._ She thought as she grabbed the box and quickly shut it and ran across the room to the dresser and opened one of the drawers and stuffed the box inside of it and closed it as she grabbed a thing of Axe body spray and sprayed it on herself and all around the dresser and made her way back to the desk, still spraying it, in the hopes that Sonic's sensitive nose wouldn't pick up the scent of the dog head that she had hidden in the dresser.

"Chris? Are you in there?" Sonic's voice was muffled through the door, but she had no doubt that he had _heard_ her moving around so why he bothered to even call out to her was beyond her, but it gave her the moment or so that she needed to get her panic under control before setting the Axe spray down on the desk as Sonic opened the door and peeked inside. His dark green eyes stared at her for a second as he slipped into the room and gently closed the door.

"Sonic. Hey what's going on?" She asked in a curious tone as she saw him visibly stiffen just inside the door, his expression dark as he sniffed the air.

Sonic could smell something unusual in the air of the bedroom. Something that he normally didn't smell when he was around Chris. It was putting his senses on alert, making him anxious, and angry-

The smell of blood always made him angry. It was simply one of the personality quirks that he had developed after all the years of dealing with Eggman and the damage that he had caused. And it was something that he didn't want to ever smell around Chris.

Which was part of the reason that he suddenly felt his temper rising but he beat it back and simply did a quick sweep of the room with his emerald green eyes before he looked at Chris. The boy had been spraying something. No doubt to mask the scent of the blood that Sonic could smell.

"Are you okay Chris?"

The boy looked at him funny then gave him an innocent smile. "I'm fine Sonic. Was there something that you wanted?" The hedgehog sniffed the air again, frowned and then let his expression go blank as he moved over to Chris, his body crowding the boy a little bit as he reached out and picked up the can of body spray and stared at it thoughtfully for a second.

The smell of blood wasn't quite as strong as it had seemed a second ago, but the smell lingered in the air anyways. And Sonic _knew_ that Chris was hiding something. He just didn't know what it was. But the fact that he knew something was up, disturbed him greatly.

Sonic made a humming sound and set the can back down after a second or so and looked at Chris again and finally answered. "No. I just wanted to tell you that I'm going out for a run and I was wondering if you wanted something while I'm out." Sonic said quietly as he studied the teen.

Chris was still relatively small for a boy of fourteen.

Delicately boned, petite, feminine like build, with an angelically beautiful face. Skin like smooth ivory, soft pink lips, wide exotic shaped eyes that had taken on a _deeper_ shade of blue; becoming almost violet in color. His hair was a bit longer, the color a deeper, brighter, more vivid red, styled in layers. The tips in the back fell just shy of the bottom of his shoulder blades, the tips curling slightly while his bangs slipped into his eyes, hiding them from Sonic's view.

"Oh. No thanks. I'm good. I'm just going to shower and change and maybe go out for a bit so-"

Sonic made another humming sound, making a mental note to stay in town so that he could keep an eye on Chris once he left the mansion. But first he needed to find the source of that damned sickening scent so that he could see what Chris was hiding. And finally figure out just how worried he and the others should be. "Alright then, later." Sonic said in a forced cheerful tone to throw Chris off of his trail and all but ran over to the window, nearly tripping over his own feet as he passed the dresser.

His green eyes flickered to the wood and narrowed slightly as he opened the sliding glass door to the terrace and ran outside then vanished in a blur. He'd be back to look inside the dresser as soon as Chris was in the shower.


	2. little brown box

Decode

Chapter 2

Little brown box

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_Sonic slid the glass door open and peeked inside of the room and gave a feral smile to the empty room as his sensitive ears picked up the sound of water running in Chris's bathroom as he stepped into the room and walked over to the dresser and sniffed at the area for a second before determining that the scent of blood and decay was coming from the third drawer and quietly opened the drawer and let out a low rumbling growl as the smell intensified to the point where he had to suppress the urge to gag as he spied the little brown box laying in the far corner of the drawer._

_Away from the clothes that Chris had moved all the way to the opposite side of the drawer. Reaching in he hesitantly picked up the box and lifted one of the flaps and looked inside and felt his heart stop for a second as his breath left his lungs in a long hiss from between his clenched teeth._

_Normally tightly leashed anger clawing at his mind._

_This was horrible. This was enraging. This was a clear, and oddly unclear threat against Chris._

_Sonic's eyes flickered to the bathroom door and he frowned as he closed the dresser drawer and placed a hand on top of the box to close it and quickly slipped back outside and closed the door behind him with a soft click before taking off. First he'd dispose of the box, then he'd find the others and have a little talk with them about the steps that they were going to take to protect Chris._

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Sonic had stayed gone a majority of the day after disposing of the box for the sole purpose of avoiding Chris. Whom was no doubt upset about the sudden disappearance of the box and probably knew that he had taken it.

Sonic had run all the way across the country, from L.A. to Canada and buried the box and it's contents on a snowy mountain _after_ ripping off the address label so that he could go by the place mentioned on the piece of sticky paper and check it out.

After that, he'd had a few hours to kill and had run from one place to another before stopping somewhere in the mountains of Kansas and pulling his cell phone out of his right glove and flipped it open to see what time it was. He figured that it would be safe for him to return home at about one in the a.m since Chris went to bed fairly early, and the others were all nocturnal like him.

He walked up the steps to Tail's room in the loft and found his friends all sitting in the room. "Sonic!" Amy cried as she jumped up from her seat on the pink beany bag chair and ran over to him and hugged him against his will. He sighed and patted her back with one big hand as she slowly loosened her grip on him. "We've been waiting for you to come back. Where have you been?" She asked as she finally let go of him.

"Here and there. What are all of you doing?" Sonic asked as he brushed by her and walked a little further into the room.

"We were waiting for you to come back so that we could have a meeting about Chris." Tails said quietly as he leaned his head back against his chair, his ears drooping a little bit.

"Hn. That's funny since I was going to call a meeting about Chris myself." _Though for different reasons._ Sonic thought as he walked over to the empty seat next to Tails and sat down in it.

"Then you've noticed the recent changes in Chris's behavior too." It wasn't really a question Tails was asking, he was merely making a casual observation that Sonic saw just as much, if not even more of the changes that the rest of them had just started to really notice. Which meant that Sonic probably noticed things that they themselves hadn't seen or taken note of yet.

"I've noticed more than any one person should notice... And I don't like what I'm seeing either." Sonic said as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"_None_ of us like what we've been seeing." Amy said as she sat back down on the pink bean bag chair and smoothed the skirt of her dress, down with her gloved hands.

"Yeah...well it's worse than we first thought." Sonic said bluntly, he'd never really been the type of guy to beat around the bush any. Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese all looked at him curiously, noting the serious expression on Sonic's face before he could mask it.

Tails narrowed his eyes at the blue hedgehog and leaned towards him a little bit in his seat and hissed. "How bad is it Sonic?" Sonic was quiet as he mulled over Tail's question. He found it just a little bit funny that they kept referring to the sudden and abrupt changes in Chris and his personality as '_it_'. Like it was a disease or illness that the boy just hadn't managed to shake yet.

Sonic thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to tell them about the box and the threat that Chris had received from someone. When he couldn't think of a good way, he glanced from one tense person to another and started talking.


	3. worry

Decode-3

Worry

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"_What?_" Amy, Tails, Cream and Cheese all cried as they stared at him in wide eyed shock and disbelief. They couldn't believe that someone had been sending such sickening threats to Chris. He was such a sweet kid, even now when he wasn't acting like himself.

"What the hell do you mean someone has mailed a dead animal to Chris? Who was it? Did you get the return address?" Tails demanded angrily as he got out of his seat, his dark blue eyes fairly glowing with animosity as his two tails thrashed around wildly. His anger evident in his body language.

He looked like he was ready to storm out of the room and wake Chris up and demand some answers from the boy, but Sonic stopped him by reaching out and grabbing one of his tails, causing the little fox to go completely still as Sonic spoke.

"First of all, it wasn't a _whole_ animal. It was an animal head. And it was in a horrid state of decay. Second of all, Chris doesn't seem to want _anyone_ to know about the threats. Third of all, we have no idea how _long_ he's been getting these threats, or why. And fourth of all, these threats might just be intimidation tactics used by someone to _stress_ Chris out. They may mean nothing at all."

"But we can't know that for sure Sonic!" Amy hissed. Sonic glanced at her, his emerald green eyes took on an apathetic look for a second.

"Your right. We have no real way to know any of these things for sure. That's why we're going to sit here and try to think of how long Chris hasn't been acting like his usual cheerful self. Who would be sending the threats to him, and try to figure out why. Now, around when did he start acting strangely?"

"About the time that Shadow showed up-" Amy said. "I remember him coming home from school one day looking pale, and sort of sickly. I asked him what was wrong but he wouldn't answer me, he just threw his back pack down and ran up to his room and locked himself in. He didn't come out for almost four days."

"I remember that-" Sonic said as he let go of Tails tail and motioned for the fox to plant himself back in the seat so that he wouldn't have to worry about him running off. Tails curled his lips back from his fangs and gave Sonic a frustrated growl then flopped back down in his seat and wasn't very surprised when Sonic shifted in his seat and put his feet in his lap to keep him there.

Making Tails wonder if Sonic knew just how badly he wanted to bite him right now. He doubted it since the blue hedgehog had his feet in his lap, but the thought of biting his friend seemed to calm Tails aggravated nerves a little bit.

"He didn't eat, or sleep the entire four days he was in there."

"How do you know that?" Tails asked curiously as he grasped one of Sonic's ankles and got a warning look from the hedgehog that practically screamed, _You do it and you die._

Tails ears flattened back against his head and he gave Sonic a mean look and made a mental note to take his friend down a few pegs the next time he had a heavy rock, some rope and a deep pond.

Sonic gave the fox a cocky smile, trying to hide his own worry behind his usual mask of cockiness and carelessness. As if his closest friends would never realize that there was more to him than meets the eye.

Sonic was far more_ sensitive_ to the happenings of the world and the people around him than the rest of them were. That was why he saw more than they did. "I watched him through the window every day and night he refused to come out or talk to any of us." Sonic said.

Tails blinked then opened his mouth to ask him why he had done that, but at that same exact second, Sonic lifted one of his feet a little bit then brought it back down on one of Tails legs, digging the heel of his sneaker into the foxes leg, hard enough to make him jump and snap his mouth shut.

This was Sonics way of shutting him up while silently pointing out that of course he would watch Chris when he wasn't acting like himself. Especially when he was refusing to _eat_ or _talk_ to anyone since this wasn't normally Chris's pattern of behavior.

Chris's normal pattern of behavior was cheerful, happy, sometimes he was quiet and sullen, but not like he had been of late.

In recent months he had become withdrawn. He rarely smiled. He no longer ate dinner with the rest of them. He stayed in his room too much. He stopped talking to his friends at school. He stopped going out. He didn't even _talk_ to them anymore unless they spoke to him first.

He looked paler than normal, and had dark circles under his eyes from lack of sleep. And if this new pattern of behavior kept up, Chris's health was going to suffer.

The added stress of being threatened would only cause his health to deteriorate more and cause him to collapse that much sooner. And that was something that Sonic would _not_ stand for. He owed the boy far too much.

They sat there talking until the early morning hours before deciding that they would have to keep a closer eye on Chris while Sonic would look for more signs of stress and try to run interference to keep anymore threatening packages from reaching the boy and upsetting him further.


	4. lull

Since you asked so nicely Dreamer. Here is the next installment of Decode.

Decode-4

Lull

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_She stood outside of the room she knew the others would be in, listening to them talk about her and how worried they were about her. She'd been standing here for the better part of an hour, since she had seen Sonic come home. _

_She had meant to track him down and demand to know what he had done with the box that she knew he had taken out of her dresser drawer while she had been in the shower, but had decided that discretion was the better part of valor and making a scene in front of the others would be a very bad thing. _

_So for the time being a strategic retreat was for the best. _

_She moved away from the wall outside of the door and silently slipped back down the stairs finding it just a little bit amusing that they were so worried about her when they didn't even really know her._

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The next day Chris didn't go to school like he should have.

Sonic knew this because he had decided to stick close to the mansion and not go out running unless it was absolutely necessary. Which was why he had planted himself outside of Chris's room on the terrace, where he could usually be found early in the day. Sort of trying to be inconspicuous. And sort of failing at it since Chris knew that he was there.

Though Sonic felt more than a little thrown by Chris's behavior this morning.

He had expected the boy to still be angry about him taking the box, but from the way Chris was behaving it was as if he hadn't realized the box was gone _yet_. Which could work in Sonic's favor since he was supposed to be keeping an eye on the boy. Yet at the same time he was trying to figure out if Chris was playing him in some way.

Everything he knew about the boy pointed to _yes_. That Chris was playing him. That he was trying to lull him into a false sense of security and then pounce on him mercilessly. But even so-

He pretended that he didn't know this. That everything was fine and went about his normal morning activities.

Chris sat at the little mosaic table in his royal blue pajama's, his long red hair pulled back into a loose pony tail at the nape of his neck. He had dark circles under his eyes again from lack of a proper night's rest, and his face was unusually pale as he pushed his breakfast of eggs over easy, bacon and sausage, around on his plate.

So far the only thing that Sonic had seen the kid eat was half a piece of toast with apricot jelly on it. "Chris are you okay?" Sonic asked curiously.

The boy lifted his head a little bit and looked at him for a second before answering. "I'm fine, just tired." She hadn't been able to go to sleep last night because she had been too wound up by yesterdays events.

Sonic jumped down from the railing and walked over to the small table and reached out and put one gloved hand against her cheek, a frown marring his usually serene features. "You need to eat a bit more." Her lips curved up a little bit in a small smile.

He really did sound _worried_ about her. And she still found it a little bit funny that he didn't know her. "I know-" She just wasn't hungry. She pushed her plate away as Sonic moved back away from her. "But I just can't eat anything more right now. You can have it if you want." She said as she picked up her glass of orange juice and pushed her chair back and stood up.

"What are you going to do now?" Sonic asked curiously.

"I'm just going to get dressed."

"Oh. Alright..." Sonic said as he picked up a piece of bacon and popped it in his mouth and chewed as his ears twitched. His green eyes on Chris's back as he slipped inside of his room and disappeared.

What was his little human up too? He wondered as he picked up another piece of bacon and ate it. He supposed that he would figure out what Chris was up too soon enough.


	5. a small breakthrough

Decode-5

A small breakthrough

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Sonic was still munching on Chris's breakfast when the boy finally came back outside dressed in dark pants, a red V necked shirt and a black hoody. His long hair hung down his his back in a thick braid as he walked out of the bedroom barefoot and carrying a pair of black rubber soled sneakers.

Sonic looked at him and stopped eating as a peculiar thought occurred to him.

Chris...looked like a girl.

Sonic swallowed what he had in his mouth and narrowed his eyes a little bit and studied the boy. Finding it just a little bit odd that this was the first time that he had ever thought that Chris's _delicate_ and _feminine_ features made him look anything like a girl to the hedgehog.

And yet logically he could understand that if Chris was hiding something big that maybe turning out to be a girl would be it. Once he really thought about it from all angles, being a girl pretending to be a boy would be terribly stressful.

Wouldn't it?

All the constant need to_ hide_ yourself. All the constant need to _pretend_ to be someone your not.

These things were made all that much worse when you were the heir to a rich and famous family. But that didn't exactly explain why Chris would be trying to hide the fact that _he_ might actually be a _she_.

"So what are you planning to do today since your not going to school?" Sonic asked curiously as he looked the boy-er girl-er boy, dammit! He couldn't make up his mind about what to think of Chris as. It was annoying to say the least but it didn't stop him from noting _certain_ things about the kid's physical appearance.

If Chris was indeed a girl, then that might explain why she had started wearing baggy clothes. The overly big shirts and jackets and hoody's would easily conceal the developing curve of her breasts. But then again so would binding them.

It would also explain why the kid's hair was so much longer even though she/he had had his/her hair cut about a month ago.

"I thought that I'd go out for a long walk." Chris said after a second or so. Sonic didn't say anything. He just licked his fingers as Chris slipped his/her shoes on and tied the laces before straitening his/her spine and getting to his/her feet and tossed the thick red braid over one slender shoulder then started walking.

Sonic followed without realizing that he was moving until they were out of the bedroom and more than half the way down the hall. "Do you want some company?" Sonic asked. His mind still abuzz with so many unanswered questions and all of the possibilities that went with them. He was having a little trouble not reaching out and grabbing Chris and asking the kid point blank.

_Are you or aren't you?_

Chris glanced down at him, the top of Sonic's head reaching the kids chin. The kids violet eyes were unreadable. Much like his/her expression. "No thanks. I'd rather walk around alone. If your bored then you should go running." Chris said gently. Sonic scowled at the kid.

Of course Chris would point that out to him. And if he didn't feel the sudden insane need to stay close to_ his_ little human and protect the kid. Then he would already be tripping over his feet in an effort to get out the door. But as it was, he felt he couldn't leave Chris alone for any length of time.

Especially outside of the house. Where the person who had been threatening Chris may be waiting to hurt the kid. "I'm not bored-" Sonic said smoothly. It wasn't a lie, he really wasn't bored. Not when Chris was a walking talking puzzle in need of solving. "I just don't wanna run around today. I'd rather spend time with you." Again, the words out of his mouth wasn't a lie.

Chris studied him for a second then smiled and grabbed his wrist. Sonic blinked and got a funny feeling that he had just done something stupid like setting himself up.

And he had. He had set himself up..._bad_.


	6. Amusement Park

Decode-6

Amusement Park

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Sonic looked over at Chris for what must have been the hundredth time in so many minutes as the Tilt A Whirl came to a stop again. This was the ninth time since their arrival at the park that the kid had ridden the ride and as much as Sonic wanted off (due to the sheer amount of junk food Chris had had him eat before the ride) he didn't dare move until Chris moved.

Which was beginning to look like Chris simply wasn't in the mood for since he stayed firmly planted in his seat, and handed another two tickets to the carny when he came by to let them out. The man just looked at Chris strangely for a second then glanced at Sonic who gave the human a slightly panicked, Please-save-me look before they were both buckled back into the seat before the man went along to help the other riders while Sonic flopped partially side ways in his side of the seat and prayed that he wouldn't throw up this time around before looking at Chris again.

The kid had a distant look on his/her face that made it difficult for Sonic to know what he/she was thinking. And though the hedgehog was dying to ask Chris what he/she was thinking, he kept his mouth shut figuring that if his human wanted him to know then he/she would say something.

Sonic sighed and looked around and stiffened slightly in his seat when he noticed a familiar bald, red clad, fat man with orange facial hair. _Eggman?_ Sonic thought as the man handed over some tickets and walked up the two steps to the ride platform and looked over at them as Sonic sub consciously reached out and grasped Chris's wrist, needing the contact with his human to keep his temper in check because if he didn't some of the innocent bystanders in the amusement park could get hurt in the cross fire.

He watched as his enemy was buckled into the ride and wondered if he could get away with a well planned sneak attack. But as soon as he had started planning his attach he felt Chris's arm slip around his neck and drag him across the seat and found himself awkwardly, yet firmly held against Chris's front as the kid turned his/her body so that the buckle was loosely tangled around the teens hips and one leg was braced against the far side of the seat.

Sonic blinked as he felt Chris's other hand on top of his head, right in between his ears and twitched when he felt Chris's breath close to one of his ears as the kid said in a very calm, almost bored tone. "Behave."

A second later the ride started and Sonic reached out blindly to grasp the handle bar that was one of the safety features, trying to keep himself from being bodily pressed against Chris by the momentum of the ride because he was worried that his weight coupled with his quills might hurt the kid but his hand slipped and he found himself so closely pressed against Chris's body that he could feel the soft swells of Chris's chest.

Confirming without words or questions or a physical examination that Chris was in fact a girl. It startled him as much as it embarrassed him.

But he quickly forced what he was feeling aside and opted to pretend that he hadn't noticed since letting her know that he had noticed her breasts, would make things awkward between them and cause her to try and distance herself from him further.

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Eggman glanced over his shoulder at Christopher Thorndike and Sonic and found himself amused at the cozy little scene. Chris really did have a soft spot for the hedgehog other wise _she_ wouldn't be holding the blue speed demon so tightly.

He'd come out today intending to see if he could get the girl alone for a little while. Maybe talk to her a little more.

He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but ever since he had finally figured out that Chris was a girl, he'd been plagued by such curiosity. What drove a brilliant girl like her to hide her gender? Why did she hide herself in plain sight? There must be a reason. Right?

And then there was the other things that made her stick out in his mind. Things that he didn't understand. Things like why, that one time he'd kidnapped her and held her hostage-she had looked at him once, and his blood had turned to ice in his veins.

He didn't understand why, but in that instant that their eyes had met-

He had felt so _utterly-unbelievably-terrified_, that he had started thinking of her as the one person in the world that he could never fight against. He had developed a healthy fear/respect for her out of what little bit he knew about her.

Which was why he had wanted to speak to her again.

She puzzled him. Completely and utterly. Which in itself should really say something about her considering he was a genius. Yet for some odd reason he hadn't been able to figure her out.

He'd spied on her, at home and school and everywhere in between. He'd kidnapped her, feigning interest in destroying Sonic and the others just so that he could speak with her. And he had been going absolutely no where.

Just when he thought he had figured out something new about her, some new habit or secret; she changed things and left him twisting in the wind.

It was the damnedest thing. Like she _knew_ that he had been watching her and went out of her way to purposely throw him off. But there was no way that she could know that he had been watching her unless she had found the small cameras that he'd had planted in her home. Barring her bedroom and the house bathrooms of course. He was an evil genius, _not_ a pervert.

The ride slowed down and came to a stop and he sat there tapping his finger tips on the metal bar biting into his stomach as he waited to be let loose and turned his head slightly and noticed that Sonic had seized his chance-

Because both he and little miss Chris were gone.

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Sonic hadn't been able to sit still any longer. The second the safety belt and the metal bar had been out of the way, he had wrapped his arms around Chris and taken off running. Making his way all the way from the Tilt A Whirl, across the park to the bathroom out side of the Haunted House and put Chris down.

"Sonic are you okay?" She asked, concern coloring her tone and Sonic's ears twitched as he blinked and tipped his head back to look at her. How odd. Now that he knew she was a girl, it was as if he was hearing that soft, almost husky voice of hers for the first time.

He gave her a strained smile and had to fight down the urge to shiver. Something about knowing that she was a girl coupled with the sound of her voice, made him feel unusually nervous. So much so that he could feel his palms sweating. "I'm...fine." He said as he leaned his back against the side of the brick building and tried to calm his body's reaction.

"Your not acting like your fine." Chris said as she bent down a little bit until they were face to face. Sonic made a humming sound but other wise refused to respond. It was on the tip of his tongue to point out that he was having a little trouble settling himself down because he's_ felt_ her.

But the second he thought of saying something so rude to her crossed his mind; he pushed it aside knowing that if he said that to her that he'd forever be labeled a pervert and he would never be able to live with himself. His green eyes flickered to her face and he flushed when he realized how close her face was to his and gave a small nervous laugh as he put his hands out against her shoulders, feeling how slender they were under his hands, and gently forced her back a step in an effort to put space between them so that he could _get a fucking grip_ on himself.

"Sonic?"

"I'm fine Chris, just feeling a little-" _Overheated._ _Nervous. Anxious._... What the hell was wrong with him? He wondered as he sought a quick means of escape and flushed a little brighter as he patted the side of the building hoping that she would understand what he was trying to say without his having to say it.

She made a small sound and straitened her spine and looked away, her face a pretty shade of pink as she said. "Ah. Go ahead Sonic. I'll wait here for you."

He gave her a quick thumbs up and quickly ducked into the men's room. Leaving her to her own vices.


	7. Talk in the Haunted House

Decode-7

Talk in the Haunted House

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_"Sonic?"_

_"I'm fine Chris, just feeling a little-" Overheated. Nervous. Anxious... What the hell was wrong with him? He wondered as he sought a quick means of escape and flushed a little brighter as he patted the side of the building hoping that she would understand what he was trying to say without his having to say it._

_She made a small sound and straitened her spine and looked away, her face a pretty shade of pink as she said. "Ah. Go ahead Sonic. I'll wait here for you."_

_He gave her a quick thumbs up and quickly ducked into the men's room. Leaving her to her own vices._

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She had been standing there for about five minutes wondering what was wrong with Sonic. Wondering if maybe she should go into the men's room and check on him but decided against it just in case he actually needed the privacy and sighed and leaned her back against the brick and closed her eyes. Perfectly content to just stand there and let the world pass her by when she heard the familiar voice of Eggman call out to her.

"Why Christoper, there you are." She opened her eyes and looked up and to the left as the man came walking up and could feel herself tense a little bit.

She'd known that he would follow her while she was here, it had become his pattern of late to follow her wherever he could while making a menace of himself. "Stalking is against the law you know." She said as he stopped right in front of her and looked around, obviously trying to figure out where Sonic was.

"Bah. It's not really stalking unless I get caught. Besides we're in a public place. There are people everywhere. Does that make them stalkers too?"

"No, but then they don't set up mini camera's in my home to watch my every move." Eggman stiffened slightly and looked down at her as she crossed her arms over her chest and started tapping her foot against the pavement in a slow, irritated rhythm, as he tugged at the collar of his shirt a little bit and looked uncomfortable.

"Uh...so you found them?"

"Of course. It's not hard too when you know what to look for."

"Ah. I see. I guess I should have expected as much, yet..." He was still receiving video feeds from those cameras so obviously she hadn't destroyed them, or taken them down. Which was confusing.

"Your wondering why I haven't destroyed them." She said with a cold smile and he made an irritated sound in the back of his throat as he narrowed his eyes at her. It was as if she had read his mind.

Freaky.

"Something like that, yes."

"I haven't destroyed them for obvious reasons."

"Obvious reasons? What obvious reasons?"

"The ones that you _should_ know, but obviously aren't aware of." She said in wry humor. If Eggman, the creator of the spy cameras placed in her home to observe her, wasn't aware of why she hadn't destroyed the cameras then she certainly wasn't going to tell him that she had been switching the frequencies in the machines so that she could spy on _him_.

"No one likes talking to a cryptic speaker Chris." Eggman chided her.

She shrugged her shoulders, not caring one way or another when he asked her to join him for a ride in the Haunted House. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to fuck off when she noted that he had a small concealed weapon pointed at her.

Bastard.

"Alright, but if you try anything funny-"

"You'll hurt me-" Eggman finished her sentence for her before giving her a half smile and saying, "I'm well aware that upsetting you isn't something that I want to do. I just want to talk. Nothing more. You have my word." She was quiet as she unfolded her arms, unsure of what to say to him, as he grasped one of her wrists and quietly led her away from the bathroom.

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Sonic splashed water on his face and turned off the faucet and looked at himself in the mirror. He wasn't flushing any more, thank god. And his heart and everything else seemed fine now that he was away from Chris.

Which begged the questions, what was wrong with him? And what did any of it have to do with Chris?

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The second that they were seated and on their way, Eggman put the weapon away and asked over the screams and shrieks and growls of the monsters and other patrons going on the ride ahead of them. "Why do you hide yourself?"

She stiffened in her seat and slowly turned her head to look at him. Her violet eyes narrowed. "I don't know what you mean."

"Your lying. I know that you know exactly what I mean. Why are you hiding yourself? Why hide your gender? Don't you get tired of being something that your not?" He asked as he looked at her. She had the most murderous look on her face, and if not for the fact that there had been witnesses who had seen them together earlier, then he had no doubt in his mind that she might have beat the hell out of him or killed him in cold blood right then and there.

She was quiet for several minutes before saying in a cold tone. "I hardly think that my personal affairs are any of your business Eggman."

"Your right. It's none of my business... But I'm very curious."

"I don't care how curious you are. Butt out."


	8. Search

Decode-8

Search

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Sonic came out of the bathroom intending to grab Chris and try and talk her into going somewhere else. Somewhere away from Eggman just to be on the safe side. And found her gone. Which was unusual since Chris had told him that she would be right there waiting for him.

He looked around, and even went so far as to ask a woman to peek into the ladies room and ask if anyone named Chris was in there and began to worry when the woman told him that there was no one in the ladies room.

It wasn't like Chris to take off without saying something. But then again she still wasn't acting like herself so maybe running off without saying something was what she had felt like doing. That or she had ditched him. He doubted that she would do something so_ dumb_ with Eggman skulking about, but it sort of made him think.

1) Either she had ditched him for some reason or another.

Or 2) Maybe Eggman had found her waiting for him and grabbed her. The thought of number two _upset_ him more than it normally did. So much so that he was mentally cursing himself. Dammit, why had he taken so long to calm himself, when he could have waited until he had her someplace safe.

He ran all the way across the park to the Tilt A Whirl to see if she was there, just in case there was a slim chance that she had decided to go back without him and ride it another nine times and growled when he couldn't see any signs of her, then turned around and systematically started to check every line for every ride, the food stands, the arcade exct.

Until he had worked his way all the way back to the restroom where he started and checked it again (with help of course) then noticed that the only place that he hadn't checked yet was the Haunted House.

She wouldn't be in there would she? He wondered as he sighed and started running, this time at a slightly slower pace so that he would be able to maneuver around the ghosts and ghouls that tended to jump out at a person.

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"Chris... You may think I'm just a creepy old guy with a really high I.Q-"

She snorted and looked at him and said in an amused tone. "Mine's higher than yours." Causing Eggman to laugh a little bit. There were definitely times when he believed that might be the case. God knew that she had been running circles around him of late.

"But I have a sort of fondness for you-"

"You call holding me at weapon point and kidnapping me, fondness?" Was he for real? She wondered as she stared at him for a second, ignoring the bloody vampire that jumped out at her even though she did put her arm up and punched the thing in the face in an irritated gesture that Eggman couldn't help but notice.

"Well yes."

"Then you must really _love_ Sonic."

Eggman made a funny little sound and made this weird motion with his hand. He would neither say that he loved or hated Sonic. At least not in the conventional sense. He knew that they were supposed to be enemies, but instead of _hating_ the troublesome creature like he should have. He had sort of regarded him as a friendly rival.

Sure they could blow each others toys sky high and wreck each others homes, but when it really came down to it both he and Sonic saw each other as nothing more than semi not so good friends, rivals and play mates. Outside of making each others lives miserable they had some pretty nice heart to heart talks.

And though Eggman would never really admit it, from time to time he liked asking Sonic to help him with things as long as they weren't too destructive or humiliating.

"I have my moments I suppose. When I'm not thinking of dismembering him with a chainsaw-" She gave him a weirded out look and he shrugged and said in a slightly defensive tone. "Hey! I'm bad at expressing my feelings! I can't help that. My mother didn't hug me enough."

"Sounds like an excuse to me."

"Maybe it is. And maybe it isn't. All I know is that I'm not good with expressing my feelings... But I do have a fondness for you. And it isn't just because I like kidnapping you. Although that is sort of an added bonus."

"Anything to ruffle Sonic's fur, huh."

"Basically." Eggman said as the cart that they were in exited the Haunted House, breaking the strained atmosphere between them as soon as they were back out in the light of day.

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Sonic came up behind them, putting on a sudden burst of speed that turned him into a blur to the untrained eyes of the people around him and grabbed Chris right out of the cart and made sure to leave a _nasty_ little present for Eggman before he took off running out of the park with a startled looking Chris tossed over one of his shoulders.

Eggman sat in the cart blinking for a second as he watched the blue blur disappear from sight and was about to get up when he felt something warm and wet slip down one of his cheeks a second before his cheek spit open and started spurting blood.

Freaking out several of the people walking by.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry about the little wound. But Sonic's warning was very clear.

Stay away from Chris or else.


	9. Shaken up Inside

Decode-9

Shaken up Inside

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Sonic didn't stop running until they were over five miles away, lost in the crowded food court of the local mall, and set Chris down and quickly looked her over for any signs of injuries while he quietly seethed. If Eggman had so much as bruised her, Sonic was going to go after him with _extreme prejudice_.

But thankfully he didn't see any visible wounds or marks that could pass as wounds. And after a second or so he was able to calm himself down enough to let Chris go and breathe a sigh of relief. "Are you okay Chris?" He finally asked, concern coloring his tone.

Chris gave him a bewildered look from under her bangs and used her hands to try and fix her hair, which had come loose of the braid that she'd had it tied back in when he had been running, and was now tangled around her face and shoulders.

"I'm fine Sonic. He didn't hurt me." She said as she used her fingers to comb out some of the more painful tangles, winching slightly when doing so hurt her scalp. Sonic lifted one hand to his mouth and used his teeth to help him pull off one of his gloves and then reached up and used his clawed finger tips to carefully help her sort out the tangles without hurting her further then watch her dig a little blue scrunchy out of her pants pocket and work her hair back into a braid while she muttered a soft thank you to him as he slipped his glove back on.

"I'm sorry that you weren't able to enjoy the carnival like you wanted." Sonic said a few minutes later when they started walking through the building.

She stuffed her hands into her pants pockets and shrugged her shoulders a little bit. "Don't be. The only fun think there aside from the junk food is the Tilt a Whirl. If Eggman hadn't have had you worry, I could have easily ridden the thing until I passed out-" Sonic gave her a puzzled look and she gave him an almost happy care free smile and said. "It's the motion of the ride. It relaxes me and makes me sleepy."

"Are you sure that you don't just get sleepy because your dizzy?"

"Not sure. All I know is that I like the motion. The ups, the down, the spinning. Being dizzy might play a factor if things like that usually made me dizzy. But they don't."

"Weird." Was all Sonic could think of to say to her. And it was weird. Anyone who could relax on something like that to the point of dozing off or falling asleep had to have some serious screws loose in the hedgehogs opinion. But since Chris liked it, then maybe it wasn't so bad.

It was either that or Chris was an alien. Sonic's ears twitched a little bit and he had to bite his tongue to keep from asking her if she had green blood or something. He doubted that she would find the question amusing even if _he_ did. "_Sooo_...what do you want to do now Chris?" Sonic asked curiously as they walked past a few shops.

Chris shrugged her shoulders again. "Dunno. I can't really think of anything."

"Do you want to check out any of the shops since we're here?" She shook her head, not really feeling like doing anything now that her trip out had more or less been ruined.

"Nah. Let's just go-" She said as she started to turn around when there was a shout and before sonic could react or even reach out to catch her someone had come up behind her while she was turning around and punched her in the face then took off running while several people walking by stopped to stare at her for a second as she tried to pick herself up off of the floor.

"Chris! Hey are you okay?" Sonic asked in a slightly shaky tone as he dropped down to the floor next to her. She lifted her head a little bit to look at him and he had to bite back a snarl when he saw blood running down her chin. Her bottom lip was split open and slightly swollen and bleeding.

Her face looked bloodless, and her whole body was shaking a little bit. "I-I'm f-fine."

"Like hell you are! What is wrong with people that they would just run up to a kid and hit them and then run off? I should-" He started to step around her. His fingers loosening around her arm. He was getting ready to go after the person who had hit her. She knew it, could tell that he was pissed by his body language and reached out blindly and grabbed him and forced him to stay put.

"Leave it alone, Sonic."

He looked at her, his enraged emerald green eyes puzzled. Why didn't she want him going after the one responsible for hurting her? "But Chris-"

"I said leave it alone Sonic..." He looked like he wanted to argue with her, but she stopped him by saying. "I don't feel well. _Please_ take me home." He got a pained expression on his face for a second, no doubt feeling torn between going after the one who had hit her and wanting to take her home. After what seemed like forever he sighed and flattened his ears back against his head and picked her up bridal style. Letting her slip her arms around his neck and ran, moving so fast that they were once again a blur.

Stopping only once they were inside the front door of the mansion so that he could put her down. She staggered a little as soon as her feet were on the floor and licked her bottom lip and winched slightly at the sharp stinging sensation as he grasped her arm, around her elbow and held onto her to steady her.

"I'm okay Sonic." It was a lie, she wasn't okay. But he supposed that she didn't want him to know that otherwise she would be more honest.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Do you want me to get some ice-"

"No. I think I'm just going to go to my room and try to make myself disappear for a little while." She said it in a half joking manner, but her words worried him as he let go of her and nodded his head as she quietly walked away from him.

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The second she was inside of the bedroom she collapsed and leaned her back against the door and sat there shaking and feeling sick to her stomach. _Teiger._ Her former friend. The one who had ordered the death of her brother.

She had heard his voice shout her name a scant second before his fist had struck her.

She hadn't expected that he would be able to recognize her so easily, it had been years since the two of them had last met each other. But she still recalled the sound of his voice. It was one of the few things about him that she would _never_ forget.

Just like she was sure that there were things about her that he would never forget.

Like the cold blooded and murderous look she had given him when she had told him that she was going to _murder_ him...

Just like he had murdered her brother.


	10. Deeply rooted Pain

Decode-10

Deeply rooted Pain

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The next day, she decided to go to school because her parents were coming home to see Chris. Or rather they were coming home to see her, disguised as Chris and she had no intention of spending any time with them at all if she could help it. Especially since her hair had grown out and her body had become more feminine looking.

It would be dangerous to place herself anywhere near either of her parents until she got a hair cut and maybe broke her nose or something to make herself look a little more...guyish. But since she had done that several times before, and it hurt like a mother fucker, she had decided that going that route simply wasn't something that she was willing to do now that she was a little bit older.

Which meant that she was simply going to have to rely on evasive maneuver's and avoid the hell out of her parents until they were gone again.

If that didn't work, then she'd run away from home. Sure she'd be worrying her grandpa, Sonic, Amy, Tails, Cream, Cheese, Tanaka, and Ella. But worrying them was much better than terrifying them if her parents started to flip out and tried to kill her again.

Like they had when she had been helpless in the hospital the day that Chris had died.

She still remembered the way her own father had held his hand over her nose and mouth and told her how much he wished that it had been her who had died instead of her brother. He had told her what a disappointment she was. How much he couldn't stand looking at her.

How much he_ hated_ her.

And her mother had held her arms down and told her that she had never wanted her. That the _only_ reason she had been born at all was because her grandfather had wanted her.

If not for the fact that several doctors had walked by her room that day she had no doubt in her mind that she'd be as dead as her brother. And that knowledge pained her greatly since she had always, and still did, love her parents.

Her eyes teared up a little bit as she pulled on the clean shirt that she was wearing to school today, and tried to breathe through the painful ache forming in her chest. She had known long before Chris died that she meant nothing to her parents. They hadn't exactly gone out of their way to hide their disappointment and hatred of her.

Chris had meant _everything_ to them.

He'd been the one that they doted on. Threw parties for. Bought expensive toys for.

She was the one that they had slapped every time she had been seen. The one who wore rags while her brother wore nice clothes. She'd been the one who hadn't been allowed outside of her room when they had company over.

It was as if she had been their dirty little secret.

And though her brother had loved her and had often cried when their parents had hurt her. It hadn't changed anything.

Just like her grandfather telling her father that he would disown him and throw him and her mother out of the house and leave them penniless if the abuse continued, hadn't changed anything. They just didn't care.

She wiped her eyes, not wanting them to be red rimmed and grabbed a small box of band aids from the bathroom and placed three on her cheek to hide the yellowish blue bruise that Teiger's fist had made on her face and studied her cheek for a second, noting that the band aids hid a majority of the bruise but not all of it. Then studied her split lip in the mirror for a second then sighed.

There was nothing that she could do about her lip, but at least the swelling had gone down so that it didn't hurt as much. She walked out of the bathroom and grabbed a rubber band and pulled her hair back into a pony tail at the back of her head.

It might be a mistake to wear her hair like this out in public, but if anyone said anything to her she'd come up with an excuse like, 'I'm a hermaphrodyte' or 'I'm gay and long hair is acceptable' or 'I'm in the middle of a sex change operation' because those were believable excuses.

Besides the highs for today were supposed to be in the hundreds and wearing her hair down would be _uncomfortable_ and might even cause her to become over heated and pass out. Once she was done with that she grabbed a jacket and slipped it on and zipped it up then slipped on her shoes and walked over to the bedroom door and opened it and froze dead in her tracks when she noted Tails standing there with his hand raised, ready to knock.

Tails looked at her, and for a moment he had an 'oh' look on his face followed by a narrow eyed look as he looked her over from head to toe then let his expression go blank. "Sonic told us about what happened yesterday with Eggman and-" He lifted one hand and ran his fingers over his furry cheek, indicating that Sonic had told them about her being hit by what he thought was just some random person. "I came to see if you were okay since you weren't at dinner yesterday." Tails said.

She gave him a small genuinely amused smile. Oddly enough she knew that he had just figured out that she was a girl, and instead of being mad about it. All she could think was; _Nice save Tails_.

"I'm fine. I'm on my way downstairs to grab something to eat for breakfast before I head off to school."

"Great. I'll walk with you." Tails said cheerfully as he stepped back out of the way to let her out of the room then fell into step beside her when she started walking. He was quiet for a second then said.

"You know that if you even need to talk to someone that you can_ talk_ to me. Right?" She blinked and looked at him for a second. Understanding that Tails knew that she was hiding her gender for a reason and felt the need to let her know that if the pressure of hiding herself ever started to wear her thin, that she could talk to him.

He wouldn't tell anyone since he knew all too well how _important_ it was sometimes to keep secrets.

It was sweet of him to offer his ear if she ever wanted to talk to someone. One that she might be tempted to take him up on if she didn't have so much metal and emotional baggage. Frankly she had decided a long time ago that it would be cruel to dump her baggage on someone else.

That was why she kept to herself.

"I know."

"But you don't want to talk about it." It wasn't a question. Merely an observation.

She gave him another small smile. This one sad. "It isn't that I don't want to talk Tails. It's more like I feel it would be cruel to talk of it."

"Cruel? How so?"

"It's complicated. And painful. And I'm not totally sure that anyone would understand my point of view or anyone elses."

"So you keep it all bottled up inside-"

She snorted. "No. Not really. I have my outlets."

"Like what?"

"Well, up until several months ago, I smoked."

Tails stopped walking and grasped her wrist, pulling her to a stop too and leaned in and sniffed her. A suspicious look on his face. "I _told_ Sonic that you smelled like tar. But he didn't believe me. He said that you were way too smart to give in to peer pressure at school and do something stupid like smoke."

"Technically he would be right. I never smoked at school. I stole some from grandpa and let him think that he had lost them."

Tails made a humming sound and moved back away from her, his ears flattened back against his head, his dark blue eyes looked a little angry as he asked. "But you don't smoke anymore?"

"Nah. That stuff can kill you so I quit."

"Good. I'd hate for Sonic to tear you a new one over that if he ever found out."

"Threats Tails? Really?"

"Who's threatening? I was simply pointing out a fact. Sonic would be very upset with you if he knew." Tails said innocently.

"Extortionist." She hissed at him. He gave her a sunny smile, not in the least bothered by being called an extortionist. He was what he was. And unfortunately for her an extortionist was just one of those things.

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They walked the rest of the way to the kitchen in silence and once there they both walked up to the island in the middle of the room and pulled out a chair.

Preferring to sit in the kitchen and eat instead of moving to the dining room where they could hear Amy, and Sonic arguing about something in the dining room. While Ella dug around in the fridge for a second while humming and then straitened her spine and closed the fridge with one hand before turning and nearly dropping the eggs that she held in her other hand when she saw her sitting there.

"Master Chris!" The woman gasped as a horrified look crossed her face.

"Hi Ella."

"What happened to your face?" The woman asked as she finally seemed to snap out of it and set the eggs aside on the counter before walking over to her and grasping her face in her hand and tipping her head back and studied her busted lip and the bruise that she had tried to hide.

"Freak accident with a door. You know how clumsy I am." Chris lied hoping that Ella would drop the matter and just _feed_ her already. Her stomach was starting to cramp. Ella made a humming sound and leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

"My poor Master Chris. You always seem to get hurt by the strangest things."

"What can I say? I'm a misfortune magnet... Feed me."

"Is that any way to ask for a favor Christopher?"

"No...but I'm desperate and short on time. Feed me."

Ella and Tails both snickered a little bit as Chris started to sort of fidget in her seat. Finally after several minutes Ella put a plate down in front of her and Tails and then stood back and let them both eat.

A few minutes and two plates of food later Ella finally ventured to ask, "Are you looking forward to seeing your parents Master Chris?" Tails glanced over at the red head as she dropped her fork and lifted her head to look at the woman.

"Would you be pissed at me if I said no?"

Ella looked shocked for a second before growling, "Master Chris! How dare you use such language!"

Chris was quiet for a second, before wiping her mouth on a paper towel and standing up. "Thanks for the food Ella, I've gotta go to school now." She said quickly before running out the door.


	11. The trip

Decode-11

The trip

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Her school day went off without a hitch.

She walked in, sat down, did her work (her make up work included) then when the bell rang she stood up turned in her work and walked out of the class room and weaved her way through the crowded hall to her locker and put her school books away.

Summer vacation would be starting in another day or so. Which meant that she would have an entire four months away from school to herself.

She wasn't sure that she liked that. Especially since it may mean that her parents might decide to stick around more than a day or two. It wasn't that she didn't love her parents, she did. Even after everything that they had done to her so far, she loved them.

She just didn't want to be in close proximity to them any more than absolutely necessary since they might start to remember that her brother was dead and flip out on her. She closed her locker and leaned in so that her forehead was resting against the cool metal for a second.

God she really didn't want to go back home. She'd much rather disappear for a few days. An idea popped into her head and she instantly perked up a little bit. She could leave the city and take a train out to the country side and camp out for a few days.

Everyone might worry if she didn't come back to the house, but she could easily fix that with a phone call to Tanaka or something. It might disappoint her parents but whatever. She had her reasons. She pulled her wallet out of her back pocket and checked to see how much cash she had on her.

She had a little over six hundred dollars in cash. And several thousand on her debit card, but she didn't plan to spend much. Just enough to get a tent and lighter a change of clothes and junk food and she'd be set. She moved away from her locker and started walking down the hall to the front door and left the building, debating with herself on if she should make the phone call now or when she was on the train.

If she made the call to the house now, everyone would come after her to stop her. And that would ruin what was left of a nice day for her. So she'd have to wait until she was out of the city before she called.

She walked for several blocks to the local super center and grabbed a buggy and went around the store grabbing whatever she felt she would need. She didn't get much in the way of things. Her tent was nothing like the complex stuff that went for hundreds and hundreds of dollars. No, she grabbed the simplest tent she could find and put it in her buggy before going to find some toilet paper. No doubt she wouldn't like using a pine cone if she needed to answer natures call while she was gone.

She also grabbed some matches to light a fire if she got cold, grabbed a sleeping bag and an extra blanket just in case then moved on and found herself a change of clothes. Three or four light shirts, a sweater, several pairs of pants and socks followed by a small pack of brightly colored panties that made her blush a little bit in embarrassment then moved on to get her junk food which consisted mostly of potato chips, dry fruits like peaches, figs, apples and cranberries. Some nuts, several things of cookies and crackers with cheese whiz.

And the last two things she bought was several things of bottled water and a back pack to carry most of it in.

After paying for everything she moved out of the way and packed the clothes, toilet paper and a majority of the food in the pack, then picked up her pack and slipped it onto her shoulders and grabbed her tent and walked out of the store and headed for the nearest train station.

An hour in a half later she was on the train, heading out of the city.


	12. The wild

Decode-12

The wild

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The short hike up the mountain from the train station didn't take her long.

No more than an hour or so and that was after she had stopped for a bathroom break before pressing on. She had called to tell everyone that she wasn't coming home for a little while. Had even gone so far as to make up a lie about staying with a friend to help them out with something important, knowing that while her parents may question the excuse, they wouldn't be able to _find_ the 'friend' that she had mentioned since said person didn't really exist.

Which meant that the only true threat to her peace of mind for the next few days, was Sonic and the others. But hopefully none of them would be able to find her right off the bat no matter how much they looked.

She walked up the hill that led to the waterfall that had created the large lake below. Where she and the others had first encountered Knuckles several months back and stopped at the edge and stared down at the small valley where she'd be camping out and smiled a little bit.

God she loved places like this.

The air was clean, there weren't any people, there weren't any cars or buses or trains or planes. No papers or broken glass littered the ground. There was nothing here but pure, _beautiful_, glittering waters. And greenery as far as the eye can see.

She could be herself here without anyone around to watch her every move. Here she could drop the facade she had erected when she had taken her brother's place and be Rissa Ann Circe Thorndike.

She stood there for several more minutes before her shoulders started to hurt a little bit from carrying the back pack full of camping gear, reminding her that she still needed to make camp, put up her tent and settle in for the next few nights.

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Sonic jumped as Chris's dad slammed the phone down on the cradle and blinked his eyes as he looked at the man.

"I cannot believe that boy. We leave work to come home and see him after so many months and he goes to spend a few nights with a friend that none of his other friends know! What is he thinking? Does he realize how much time and effort it took to get even _one_ day off of work?"

"Now son, calm down. Chris isn't a child anymore. He's a teenager. Disappearing at times like this is normal-" Charles said in a calm tone as Chris's dad started pacing.

"Normal? Disappearing when your parents want to see you isn't normal-" Chris's mother said as she wrung her hands in her lap before saying. "Do you think Chris is upset with us for missing his birthday or something?"

"Chris's birthday isn't for another few weeks." Charles said kindly as he reached out and took the woman's hand and gave it a small squeeze.

"But we missed his birthday last year. And then when we came home to make it up to him, he wasn't here."

"He's avoiding us." Chris's dad growled.

Sonic frowned and shifted from one foot to another for a second in a slight shuffling motion as he watched his human's father pace back and forth like a caged tiger. Irritation bleeding from the mans every pore.

Why would Chris be avoiding her parents? He wondered curiously.


	13. Knuckles, part 1

Decode-13

Knuckles, part 1

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Rissa sat at the base of a tree on the bank on the lake, her feet submerged in the cool waters as she watched the waning light of the sun create it's rainbow hues in the sky. She'd been sitting here like this for the past hour or so after setting up camp. Just enjoying the scenery. But now she was starting to get hungry and knew that she should build a fire or something and see if she could find something to eat.

Since she didn't have much in the way of food, then foraging wouldn't be such a bad idea. She recalled seeing some wild berries a little ways from the lake. She could gather some woods to burn and then some berries and then sit back and eat some chips or something later if she got really hungry.

Maybe tomorrow she could hike back to town and buy a small cooler and some bread and sandwich meat, cheese, mayo and mustard and create a little place in the shallow water of the lake and put the cooler in it to keep the stuff cool. Then she wouldn't have to worry about running out of food before her few days were up.

Though it would be far easier to either buy or make a fishing poll and just fish for her dinner.

She sighed and pulled her feet out of the water and slipped her shoes back on and then slowly stood up and stretched her arms up over her head for a second then dropped her arms back to her sides and started walking back towards camp. Pausing from time to time along the way to bend down and pick up some medium to large sized smooth sided rocks and then walked to the small area ten feet from her tent then dropped all of the rocks but one.

A thin granite rock with a sharp jagged edge.

She studied it for a second then dropped down to her knees and used it to dig a shallow little pit then after shifting all of the dirt out of the way, she lined the pit with the rocks then stood back up and dusted herself off and went to gather fire wood completely unaware that she was being watched.

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He didn't like it when people came traipsing through his neck of the woods. They usually left things a mess of paper and junk food wrappers. They broke glass bottles or threw them in the lake, or they went to sleep after building the fire up and caught something that they weren't supposed too on fire then ran off in a hurry to keep from getting into trouble.

But this person-

This person was _different_.

He had known who the kid was the second that he had noticed him passing under his favorite napping spot about two in a half hours ago. He'd been surprised to see Sonic's little human wondering around all by himself. But no more than he usually was when he ran into the kid when he was alone.

But he had been more than a little surprised, not by Chris's appearance in the forest, but by his physical appearance. The last time he had seen the boy had been during the Shadow incident and in the time since then, Christopher Thorndike had grown two in a half to three feet taller than he had originally been, his hair was a deeper shade of red and hung farther down his back.

He was still slender, delicate, almost frighteningly petite for a kid his age. But his face...

That hadn't changed at all.

Chris still had the same feminine looking features that he had possessed from the beginning, which made it easy for the Echidna to identify who the boy was with something aside from just his scent. He sat perfectly still and watched as Chris set up a fire pit then stand up and dust himself off and then turned and walked in the opposite direction of the Mobian's tree causing the Echinda to shift in place a little bit as he debated with himself on if he should follow the boy or not.

On one hand, Chris needed to know how to survive on his own without help. And on the other hand...

Sonic would be really, really, _really_ pissed at him if he let some wild animal maim the boy.

Knuckles chewed his bottom lip nervously for a second and looked around, almost expecting Sonic to come running up. He felt just a little uncomfortable not knowing where the blue speed demon was when he could usually be found attached to Chris like a frigging shadow.

And if he wasn't here with the kid (which was looking more and more likely by the second) then that meant that Chris was here alone. And he was now responsible for taking care of the boy until Sonic came for him.

He sighed and quietly jumped down out of the tree and made his way over to Chris's tent and then sat down in front of it to wait for the boy's return.


	14. Knuckles, part 2

Decode-14

Knuckles, part 2

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Rissa was gone for about twenty minutes before returning to camp with a bundle of sticks tucked under one arm and a small amount of wild strawberries, black berries and blue berries in her other hand. While foraging for food she had noticed several different types of eatable plants like mint, wild onions, plums, raspberries, exct.

If she got hungry again later, she'd just go get some more stuff. She'd made sure to mark the area's where the plants were growing so that she could find them even in the darkness.

She walked over to the fire pit and dropped the sticks onto the ground then turned to go to her tent and find one of her bottled waters so that she could wash her food before she ate it and stopped cold when she saw a certain irritated looking Echinda staring at her.

"K-Knuckles."

"Hey kid. How's it going?"

Rissa blinked and looked around almost nervously wondering why it had never crossed her mind that she might run into Knuckles here in this place. In truth that _should_ have been the first thing that had crossed her mind once she was out in the woods.

But she had been so _relieved_ about finally being away from everyone that she had forgotten just how much the Mobian enjoyed the wilderness. That coupled with his anti social behavior should have assured her that he wouldn't make a random appearance.

Apparently she'd have been wrong about that too if he had even crossed her mind. "Uh...um...f-fine." She stuttered and Knuckles tilted his head a little bit and studied her with those unnerving unblinking violet eyes before he arched a brow at her and gave her a slightly mocking smile.

"Fine? Just fine? Nothing else?" He asked with a curious note in his voice. Rissa mentally shook herself and then glared at him.

"No. Nothing else. What brings you out here?"

"I could ask you the same Chris..."

"I'd rather you didn't if it's all the same to you."

"But if I don't ask, I won't learn anything." Knuckles said in a slightly amused tone of voice as she dropped down to the ground in front of him so suddenly that he jumped a little bit and tensed as if he expected her to hit him or something as she set the berries down on the ground between them and braced her hands on the ground on either side of him and leaned in a little bit and growled.

"If you really want to know why I'm here, then I'll tell you. But I don't want you to get any nosier or ask any more questions. Understand?"

Knuckles blinked his eyes as she shifted and sat back on her heels. "Alright Chris, I get it. Just tell me why your here so that I won't rive myself crazy wondering." Knuckles said gently. He could almost smell the ire bleeding from the boy's pores.

Whatever had him all the way out in woods'ville was obviously a touchy subject for the boy if he was going to try intimidating him.

Rissa chewed her bottom lip for a second, silently debating with herself about what to tell the Echinda then settled on the least informative and honest answer. "My parents came home today and I don't want to see them. So I sort of ran away from home."

Knuckles didn't move. Didn't even seem to breathe as he stared at her before he got up and reached out and grasped one of her wrists and tried to pull her up from the ground as he growled. "_Go_ _home_."

She jerked her wrist from his grasp and hissed, "Bite me. I'm not going home until-" _Mom and dad are gone and won't be able to escape work again for quiet some time._ "I damn well feel like it." Knuckles gave her a calculating look that quickly morphed into a pissed off look before he said.

"You shouldn't do things like this to your parents Chris. It's cruel."

"No it isn't. Look at this from my point of view. I felt like I was _suffocating_ when I heard that they were coming home. I needed to get away. I came here. I'm not saying that I didn't _tell_ them something. And I'm not saying that I'm_ never_ going home again. Just give me a few days to myself before I have to go back." Knuckles studied her again and took a deep calming breath before asking.

"What exactly did you tell them? And how long are you planning to stay?"

"I told them that I was staying with a friend. I just didn't say which one. And I plan to go back in two or three days."

_Two or three days huh. I could probably keep an eye on him for that long..._ Knuckles thought as he sighed and ran his hand through his dread locks. "Alright Chris, you have three days. After that I'm dragging you back to the city kicking and screaming if I have too."

"Fair enough."

"Alright then, now that that's been established-" Kunckles looked down at his shoes and thinned his lips a little bit when he saw that he had stepped on the kids food. "I'd...better go get you some more food since I've ruined this here."


	15. Knuckles, part 3

Decode-15

Knuckles pt. 3

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Knuckles sat across from Chris studying the boy through the red orange flames of the small, but very warm fire that Chris had made as the boy poked at the embers almost anxiously before catching Knuckles looking at him. "What?" Chris asked as a small frown worked it's way across his face.

"Nothing." Knuckles said as the boy started to poke at the embers again. The echinda got the distinct feeling that he was making the kid uncomfortable with his stare, but he was loath to look away. Chris was an interesting person in an uninteresting area. To be perfectly honest,_ normally_ the echinda would be content to stare at a leaf or a tree for hours and hours on end.

But with Chris here, he seemed less interested in the plants and such and more interested in the boy...

He _moved_ more. And made more _sound_.

And each one drew Knuckles eyes like a flame drew a moth. He just couldn't look away.

_This must be how Sonic feels about Saturday morning cartoons._ Knuckles thought in bemusement as Chris sighed and stopped poking at the fire and looked at him again and asked.

"Is there something on my face?"

"No."

But Chris's face was very expressive, and reflected his thoughts. It was fascinating to see the different expressions that crossed his face in the span of a minute. The boy had a tendency to go from serene, to thoughtful, to furious then happy in the span of .02 seconds.

But today however, Chris wasn't acting like himself. His expression was closed off. His body language practically screamed discomfort, worry, and irritation though he was trying desperately to hide these things and remain civil.

And while Knuckles appreciated the kid's efforts, but he shouldn't feel the need to hold himself back just because he thought that he'd be hurting the echinda's feelings. "Is something on your mind Chris?"

"No. Nothing." The boy said quickly as he snapped the stick in his hand into pieces.

Knuckles remained silent as he watched the boy. _Such nervous energy-_ Chris was obviously thinking about something that either made him feel very unsettled or worried. What it was, Knuckles didn't have a clue since the boy didn't feel like sharing.

And while it might be for the best to simply _pretend_ nothing was bothering the boy, Knuckles would keep asking until the kid caved. They sat there in silence for a little while. Neither of them speaking and finally Knuckles got a little bit impatient and decided to weed out the problem with some carefully thought out questions. "So..uh..h-how's Sonic and the others?"

Chris gave him a strange look as he fed the stick that he had broken to the flames before he answered. "They're doing fine. Amy got a new dress. Cream and Cheese have been throwing daily tea parties and inviting every at the house to attend. Tails and grandpa are working on gathering all of the Chaos Emeralds..."

"And Sonic runs."

Chris gave a slight nod, his long red hair slipping over one of his shoulders a little bit. "Uh...what about your friends at school? Anything new there?" Chris narrowed his violet eyes at the echinda and gave him a cold calculating look that set off warning bells in Knuckles mind a second before Chris said in a low dangerous tone.

"Knuckles, if you have something you want to ask... You should just come right out and say it."

"Alright then. Are you in some kind of trouble or something?" _Is that why you ran away from home? Why you don't want to see your parents? _Chris didn't answer him, at least not in the manner that he expected the boy too.

He stared at Knuckles for a moment or so then said, "I'm calling it a night." And stood up. Knuckles blinked at the boy but said nothing as he walked over to the tent and disappeared inside.

_Hn. So that is how it is. _Knuckles thought as he sat there for a while trying to think up a way to get Chris to talk while he watched the flames slowly die down.

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Sonic was walking by the study where Chris's parents had retreated too a few hours ago to call all of Chris's friends in an effort to find Chris, but Sonic knew that it was pointless.

Chris obviously didn't want to be home right now and was hiding out somewhere alone and while this bothered Sonic, he knew in his heart that Chris was fine for now. He'd give her until the time she had mentioned in her earlier phone call before he started looking for her.

And if he didn't find her healthy and whole then someone was going to suffer _dearly_.

He stood outside the study silently debating on whether or not he should knock on the slightly ajar door and ask about Chris's where about's but decided against it when he heard Chris's dad slam the phone back down on it's cradle and growl, "That little punk-" His tone laced with barely suppressed rage, drew Sonic up short as he flattened his back against the wall on the other side of the door out of the way and stood there listening.

_"Who the fuck does he think he is? _Does he think that just because his worthless sister is dead that he can't be_ replaced_ as our heir by another child?"

Sonic's ears twitched as he frowned. His mind absorbing what Chris's dad was saying like a sponge as Mr. Thornedyke continued to speak. "I swear to god one of these days if that boy doesn't straiten out, I'll arrange an accident for him just like I arranged one for Rissa."

Sonic recoiled as if he had been struck, his emerald eyes wide, his heart squeezing painfully in his chest.

What did Mr. Thornedyke mean? Was he threatening Chris's life? Sonic wondered as he mentally went over the events leading up to this moment and nearly swore out loud when he realized that Chris was in mortal danger.

Not just from the person who had been sending her such frightening things in the mail but _also_ from her parents. And she obviously knew the danger that they posed. Why else would she be so secretive?

But there was one thing that he didn't understand.

If Mr. Thorndyke had arranged an accident for the person that he referred too as Chris's sister, then did the fact that Chris was a girl mean that he had failed? Perhaps hurt someone in her place and caused her to hide herself in plain sight?

Just what the hell was going on here? He wondered as he fisted his hands at his sides as he pushed away from the wall and turned back the way he had come and started walking, his stride gaining speed the farther he got from the study until he was running as fast as he could out the front door and out into the night.


	16. Elephant in the room

Sorry kittens- I've been feeling bad for the past three days and had a grand total of five hours sleep-period so this chapter is fairly short.

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Decode-16

Elephant in the room

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Knuckles sat up all night thinking about what sort of trouble Chris could be in and came to the conclusion that since the boy was a 'good kid' that the trouble he was in couldn't be _that_ bad. Chris probably reacted to the trouble he was in very strongly and figured that he was in much more trouble than he actually was and probably thought that giving his parents and everyone a few days to cool down would work in his favor.

Frankly Knuckles thought that the kid was being a little bit of a baby.

Or maybe _coward_ was a better word for how Chris was acting?

This was his initial thought before he got up to stretch his legs about twenty minutes ago when the sun started to come up and he found himself meandering over to the tent to wake Chris up so he could get an early start on his day and froze just in the opening of the tent and blinked his amethyst eyes at the sight before him.

Chris lay sprawled on his back, one arm hap hazardly flung over his head, his thick red hair fanning out around his head and shoulders, the cover of his sleeping bag had been kicked off sometime during the night and the kid wasn't wearing a shirt.

Just some gaze bandages wrapped loosely around his chest and a pair of cotton pants that were pushed dangerously low on Chris's hips.

Knuckles stared for a second or so in slack jawed disbelief before he_ slowly_ backed out of the tent and quickly pulled himself together and tried to think of what to do now that he had seen Chris in such a state.

He flushed and awkwardly scratched his cheek.

Should he pretend that he hadn't seen what was so obviously hidden under those bandages? Or should he say something? Maybe warn her to wear a shirt from now on or she might catch a cold?

No. Wait, it would be stupid of him to say something wouldn't it? Especially since girls were very particular about who saw their bodies. Knowing that he had seen her in such a vulnerable state would upset Chris. Wouldn't it?

He stood there for a second then started to peek back inside the tent then caught himself and stepped away from the tent and decided to busy himself with catching something (like maybe a fish or a rabbit) for breakfast since he wasn't sure if Chris knew how.

He figured that it would allow him time to calm himself down and think of something and let Chris sleep in a little while.

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Rissa wasn't sure what woke her up exactly.

The sound of Knuckles swearing rather loudly a little ways from her tent, or the fact that she had to use the bathroom. She cracked open an eye and looked around the tent and made a soft groaning sound when she could see the faint light of the sun filtering through the opening several feet away.

Crap. It was morning already.

She yawned and turned over onto her left side and curled up for a second before the pressure on her bladder became too much for her and she sighed and pushed herself upright and grabbed the shirt that she had jerked off the night before because she had been sweating because she had piled on the covers and sort of started to bake herself.

She pulled the shirt on and kicked off what was left of the covers and scrambled to her feet and slipped out of the tent and blinked and raised an arm to cover her eyes to block out the sudden blinding light from the sun and sort of staggered around like a zombie until she ended up in the woods well enough out of ear shot and eye sight and used the bathroom.

Once she was done she pulled her pants up and staggered back to camp and glanced around in idle curiosity to see if she could figure out why Knuckles had been swearing before and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him hanging from a tree by his ankles a good twenty feet away with his arms crossed over his chest and an unamused look on his upside down face.

"Knuckles-"

The echinda sighed and waited three seconds before saying in a slightly irritated tone, "Yes Chris."

"What are you doing up there?"

Knuckles looked at her, silently thanking god that she had had the common sense to put her shirt back on before saying, "I was trying to catch something for breakfast..."

He'd spotted a fat little bunny a little while ago that he had felt would make a nice breakfast for them and had made a snare and set it up before he had tried herding it towards the snare and had gotten stuck in his own trap giving the damn bunny a chance to escape.

Chris gave him an 'Oh' look and went over to the tent and disappeared inside for a second and came back out with a wicked looking pocket knife. He blinked and slowly unfolded his arms as Chris opened the knife with a quick flick of her wrist before putting the handle of the knife in her mouth and starting to climb the tree that he was hanging from.

Chris swung herself up on the tree limb and wrapped her legs around it and lowered herself so that she was hanging like him and took the knife out of her mouth and sawed through the vine that Knuckles had used to make the snare and freed Knuckles.


	17. The visitor

Decode-17

The visitor

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A pair of eerie violet blue eyes watched Knuckles and Rissa from a safe distance away from the camp and a small smile tugged at the corners of the person's lips. It felt like it had been forever since he had seen Rissa. Gods she had grown so much.

He shook his head as if to clear it and sighed. _Shit._ He was doing it again.

Thinking of the girl he was watching as _his_ Rissa. His precious sister. The one who had been killed by their parents well over ten years ago when he was still a child.

He felt a painful ache start in the middle of his chest and lifted his hand to rub the spot over his heart absent mindedly. He couldn't help but keep thinking of the girl as his Rissa. He couldn't keep himself from thinking how similar the girl in the camp was to the girl that he had lost to his family's selfishness and greed.

He couldn't stop his mind from noticing all the things about her that his sister had never reached. The girl in the camp was about fifteen or sixteen despite the fact that everyone around her thought she was closer to thirteen or fourteen.

She had grown her hair out, apparently not caring about the risks of having long hair while posing as a boy. And had grown two or three feet.

She was_ beautiful_. And she meant everything to him.

Which was why he had come to this place in this specific time line to save her. He couldn't let the history of his world play out in this one. His sister's life meant far too much to allow her to seek her vengeance.

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"Want another berry Knuckles?" Rissa asked as she held her hand out. Knuckles pushed her hand away with a curt 'No thanks' then got a faw away look on his face for a moment or so before his fur bristled and stood on end and he made a hissing sound from between clenched teeth and stood up and looked around.

Rissa knew enough about Knuckles and Sonic to know the signs of irritation that came from being watched. "Knuckles?"

"Shhh... Please keep quiet Chris." Knuckles said in a hushed tone as he searched the trees around them then started searching the trees across the lake, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

He saw a few trees sway slightly then go still, but he didn't see anything else. He stared across the lake at the tree line through narrowed eyes for a moment before taking a slow calming breath and sitting back down.

He wasn't sure if he and Chris were still being watched or not, but at least he couldn't sense any animosity from whoever had been watching them. But that didn't mean anything aside from that person might just be really good at hiding his intentions.

"Chris if I asked you to go home would you go?"

"No."

Knuckles sighed tiredly. "What if I ordered you too?"

"If you really think I'll listen then go ahead and order away."

Knuckles made an irritated growling sound in the back of his throat. "What if I threatened to hurt you? Would that make you go home?"

Chris smiled at him. "You wouldn't dare follow through with your threat." _Because Sonic would murder you_. Hung unsaid between them and Knuckles made another growling sound before jumping up and yelling,

"You don't want to listen to reason- Fine! But while your here you follow my rules or so help me god Chris I will do such horrible things to you! Do you understand? _Horrible things!_"

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Sonic lay face down on Chris's bed with his arms wrapped around one of her pillows, breathing in her scent and trying hard not to admit that ever since he had found out she was a girl- things had changed. Or at least they had for him.

He couldn't move far from the house without missing her and the past day or so since she had left town had been hell on him. Literally.

He had holed up in her room, pacing back and forth, refusing to eat. All he did all day was stare out the window, secretly hoping that he'd see her walk up the drive way to the house. And when he didn't he was so _terribly_ disappointed that he would fly into a rage and break something.

It wasn't that he meant too. He didn't. It was just what he was feeling at the moment was so very overwhelming that he couldn't seem to process it.

There was his protective nature. A wealth of possessiveness-the need to go find Chris and give her some small piece of himself that would practically scream to the world; _Mine! _There were other things too. Things that he didn't understand. Things that he normally shied away from out of worry and fear.

He sighed and pushed himself up onto his knees and looked around the room. He could see the splintered furniture of one of her bed side tables and the glittering shards of broken glass from one of her lamps laying on the floor a few feet away and wrinkled his nose.

Ella was going to skin him alive for making such a mess. And Chris would likely be pissed at him for breaking her things.

He sighed again and ran one of his hands through his blue spikes. He needed to clean up the mess he'd made and leave before he broke something irreplaceable. But he'd be damned if he left the room empty handed. He'd already decided a little while ago that he'd take something small that he could carry on him, and keep it with him until Chris asked for it to be returned to her.

He even knew what he was going to take.

It was a well known fact that while Chris didn't wear jewelry, she did have some hidden away. Little pieces of sterling silver with garnets, sapphires, rubies and emeralds. Necklaces, pendants, earrings, and a few rings.

Sonic had seen Chris hide some of her things in a small pannel hidden in the wall behind her dresser in a tin cookie can on her Birthday. He'd decided to take one of the silver rings she had in the cookie tin.

An oval blood red garnet with an intricate weave design on either side. It was the ring that he had bought for her for her birthday. So it was fitting that it would be the treasure that he borrowed.


	18. home

Decode-18

Home

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Knuckles didn't sleep at all that night. He was much too worried that the unknown visitor might come back. So he had stayed up, simply visiting with Chris, until the kid had crashed.

That had been several hours ago.

And though Knuckles felt the need to get up and walk over to Chris and shake her awake as the pinkish, orange rays of dawn's light flashed across the sky overhead. Knuckles sighed and glanced over at Chris, laying on the ground across the fire pit from where Knuckles sat. Her back was turned to him, her body curled in a ball with a thin blanket tangled around her hips.

Wrapped around her torso with one edge coming up to drape over her slender shoulder.

Knuckles stared for a moment then looked away, uncertain of what he should be doing right now. Part of him wanted to wake the girl up so that she could get her things together and part of him was _loath_ to do anything.

Part of him no longer cared if she was supposed to go home or not. He had liked having a friend to visit. And some foreign, region of his mind acknowledged that he sometimes felt lonely living out in the wild. He wanted her to stay.

But like all good things, his time with her came to an end. As soon as Chris woke up and got dressed, she started breaking camp.

And fool that he was...he helped her in an effort to hide how much being left was going to hurt him. But somehow- Right before they parted ways. He was sure that she knew. He could feel it when she dropped down to her knees for a moment and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then without another word she grabbed her back pack and started walking.

Leaving him standing frozen in place, unsure about what to do with himself now.

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Sonic woke up laying face down in Chris's bed, on the day that she was supposed to come home and took ten minutes to wake up and go about his mourning routine before getting down to business.

He made a special trip to the kitchen to get some cleaning suppies; a vaccum, some wood and glass cleaner, a broom and dust pan. A waste basket, some plastic garbage bags. Some fresh bed sheets for the bed.

And he cleaned up the broken glass from the lamps that he'd trashed, set right the over turned bed side table and shelf and chair that he'd knocked over. He picked up the clothes that he'd scattered all over the room, re washed them, dried them and then folded them and put them up.

He picked up all of the papers scattered all over the room and re stacked them and put them in their previous place on Chris's desk. He picked up the books and put them back on the desk.

He picked up the slivers of broken glass- down to the smallest of slivers. Uncaring of the fact that he cut himself several times and was bleeding all over Chris's semi clean carpet. Once he was done with that, he vaccumed up any remaining pieces hidden in the carpet.

Once that was done, he stripped the bed of the sheets that he'd been wrapping himself in for the past few days. Intending to hide all traces of himself and how much Chris's absence had bothered him. Not out of shame or embarrassment.

But because he didn't want Chris to know that Sonic was starting to care for her more and more.

He wasn't sure if she would _welcome_ his attentions. He figured that unless she realized his developing feelings on her own and made the first move that, he'd just leave her alone. He didn't want to _worry_ her or _stress_ her out more than she already was.

He was in the middle of making up her bed when he was startled by a knock on her bedroom door and stopped as Ella walked in holding the telephone and grinning like mad. "Master Chris wants to talk to you." Ella said as she held out the cordless phone in her hand. Sonic took the phone from her and pout it up to his ear and hesitated for a second before saying,

"Hi Chris."

There was a short pause from the other line, and his lips curved up in an amused smile as Chris greeted him back, _"I missed the sound of your voice..."_


	19. the other Christopher T

Decode-19

The _other_ Christopher T.

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Christopher Thorndyke looked at his reflection in the small hotel bathroom mirror and frowned a little bit as he thought on how to best approach Rissa and try to persuade her to give up her revenge. First thing was first though.

He'd have to change his appearance so that he didn't look so much like the girl or someone might realize that he was alive. He looked himself over, noting the blue/violet eyes, the shoulder length vivid red hair.

He sighed softly, finding it just a bit irritating that he'd have to get contacts and dye his hair. Maybe he'd color his hair black and get forest green contacts. Maybe he'd hit a tanning salon too. He seemed awfully pale for an twenty two year old man.

Almost like he hadn't seen the sun in _years_. And maybe he hadn't seen the sun in years. He'd spent so much time in his lab since his early teens that he had lost track of the days, weeks, months, and years since he'd last gone outside. Or out on vacation. Or just sat outside and enjoyed a bright warm summer day.

He'd become a shut in after Rissa's death because he'd been too scared and angry about everything. How she had died had just been...

He closed his eyes against the memories of how Rissa had died. He didn't want to think about it. Didn't want to think about how his parents had so royally fucked over the only one of them that had actually given a damn about them.

He didn't want to think about all of the times that his father had visited Rissa in her room at night when he thought that no one was paying attention. Or how his mother had used to burn her with cigarettes. And smack her around.

How they paid all of their attention to Chris and groomed him to be their heir. And locked Rissa away in the attic and starved her.

For affection. For food. For comfort.

They had starved her on so many levels that by the time the end came for her, the girl had _begged_ Chris to let them kill her. And what had made the whole mess so unbearable was that he knew that he had caused her even more pain. Everytime he tried to shield her. Everytime he tried to feed her. Or comfort her. Or help her escape.

He'd made everything so much _worse_ for his precious sister.

But things were different in this world. Or at least he hoped that they were because Rissa was still alive.

She appeared healthy. Stressed and worried. Facing an uncertain future, but healthy just the same. However there was no telling how long she would stay that way if she continued on her current path of self destruction.

He needed to get her to give up her plans and do something about her parents in this world, before she ended up dead like his Rissa had.


	20. Welcome wagon

Decode-

Chapter-20

Welcome wagon

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Tieger listened to the instructions from the person on the other end of the line and smirked evilly. It looked like the Thorndykes were finally coming around from the sound of the instructions that the young mercenary had been given. Well, sort of.

His instructions were simple.

Mr. Thorndyke had informed Teiger of a martial arts tournament that would be taking place in a month's time. He had instructed Teiger and three of his strongest guys to enter the tournament and face off against Chris.

It had been on the tip of Teigers tongue to tell them that their son was dead, and that their daughter was the only child that remained... But if he had, then the Thorndykes would have thought that something had happened to Rissa and would have sought to protect her, even after finding her alright. And that was simply something that Teiger couldn't have since he still needed to finish what he'd started, and _kill_ her.

Especially since she was the only person who knew what he'd done to her brother.

He flipped his cell closed and looked around the old ware house that he'd made into his gang's base of operations, and snorted at his choices. Most of the gang were pitifully weak physically.

None of them sparred, or knew how to throw a very decent punch.

But they were great with weapons. And many of them were very cunning and fast wich made up for their lack of physical strength. Still, none of them would be able to take Rissa on since she would be especially motivated to rip them apart. Which meant that he'd need to recruit some new gang members.

Some strong ones.

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Rissa stepped off of the train and looked around the crowded station. She had asked Sonic to meet her at the station when the train came in, but from the looks of it he hadn't managed to _sneak_ out of the house just yet. Which was fine, she supposed, since the others would probably want to come to the station with him to greet her.

She moved out of the way of the people who wanted to board the train and walked over to a bench and slipped her back pack from her shoulders and set it down next to the bench before sitting down to wait.

She must have sat there for all of five minutes when she saw a blur of movement coming from down one of the streets, and smiled when Sonic appeared in front of her looking a little frazzled and picking flower petals out of his fur. "Sorry I'm late Chris. Ella and the others found out that I was coming to meet you and decided to go mid evil on my ass when I refused to let them come with..."

Rissa looked him over and laughed at the sight of some of his normally straight quills, sticking up in little zig zags from his head and back. Looking like little lightening bolts. "Ella and Amy must have tossed you around pretty badly-"

Sonic snorted and shook his head and muttered something scathing about Tails under his breath as he finished picking flower petals out of his fur. "Are you ready to go home?" Sonic asked, an expression of dread crossing his face.

Rissa snickered at the look on his face. It was almost comical how much he was dreading going back to the mansion.

Tails must have really laid into him. _The poor guy._ Rissa thought as she stood up and picked up her back pack. Sonic took it from her automatically and slung it over his shoulder. "I'll carry this-" He said as she gave him a curious look. "Besides, it's over eighty degrees today and you would only wear your self down if you carried it."

"Alright."

"Do you want to go home?" Sonic asked again, his tone somewhat hopeful. Rissa thought about it for a second, then shook her head no and Sonic grasped her hand and started walking.

"Do you want to do anything?" He asked as they cleared the train station.

"You up to a movie?" Rissa asked out of the blue. Sonic glanced at her and smiled.


	21. Author's notes

Hello kittens!

I have some grim news to share.

My computer died yesterday so my updating will be much _slower_ due to the fact that I'll be sharing computers with my husband and brother.

So it's not like I'm abandoning anyone or any of my works, It'll just be a while before I can update at _all_ hours of the day and night like I used too.

So please don't totally despair. I did that yesterday and it wasn't fun. I had to have two nerve pills and after that I was useless for the night.

I do however have one thing to say aside from my computer being dead, anyone who wants too can request an update for any story on my list and I will do what I can between the hours of 3 pm-12:30 am to update something for you okay.

Okay then, that's everything. talk at ya'll later.


	22. the new Home Again chap

Hello kittens-

I haven't updated this one in a while so I've decided to try. I'm not sure if the chapter will be any good but-

Enjoy it anyways since I decided to lengthen it.

Decode-21

Home again

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The movie that they had gone to see, had sucked. _Literally_. There hadn't been even one part of the gory flic that was worth mentioning.

After they left the theater they went and got something to eat then had realized that it was getting late. Sonic had sighed and got up out of his chair and looked at her for a second before scratching behind one of his ears and saying, "I wish that we could stay like this a little bit longer, but I guess it's time to take you home so that everyone else can see you."

Grandpa Chuck,Tanaka, Ella, Tails and the others were no doubt watching the drive way for her.

He waited for her to finish her meal, occasionally teasing her for being such a slow eater before she finished up and then stood. At which point Sonic wasted no time in scooping her up and taking off in a blur of speed that had them at the front door to the mansion in under five minute.

The door swung open to reveal Tails standing there with his arms crossed over his chest, his normally crystaline blue eyes had darkened to a deep sapphire, his expression dark as his two tails thrashed behind him.

Sonic put her down and then slipped her backpack from his shoulders and set it down next to him as Tails called out in an irked tone without taking his eyes off of Sonic. "Chris is back!"

Sonic stepped back as people came running from every direction in the house to greet Chris home while Tails stepped outside and grabbed Sonic's wrist before the older teen could so much as run away and growled at his friend in a low tone. "You and I are going to have a very, very long talk later. About the merits of sharing Christopher with the rest of us mere mortals."

Sonic didn't say anything, he didn't even give any indication that he had heard. He was too busy watching everyone welcome Chris home with hugs, tears and lectures on scareing them by disappearing so suddenly.

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_Once Chris was done dying his hair and putting in his contacts he then cleaned up the small mess that he'd made and got dressed in a comfortable pair of dark jeans, a sleeveless black shirt, some black kid leather gloves, jacket and some black biker boots. After which he decided to step out for a little while to do something._

_If he recalled correctly Tieger Montogue, a punk with a rap sheet as long as his leg ranging from petty theft, to kidnapping of a small child, to conspiracy to commit murder. So far the punk had yet to be convicted of anything. _

_But that would all change once Chris infiltrated Teiger's group and took him down from the inside. Luckily for him the upcoming martial arts tournament would give him a chance to get in close and bring Teiger's card hous toppling down around his head._

(***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Dinner with everyone was just like it usualy was for Rissa.

Everyone was loud, the conversation was odd and aside from Tails continuously staring, it was everything that she had expected it would be. After dinner however...not so much. Everyone seemed to be deviiating from their usual routines.

Amy and Cream had dragged her off for an hour or so of lecturing after which she managed to escape only to be grabbed by Tanaka and dragged outside to do some sparring and excercises until she couldn't move any more.

It must have been Mr. Tanaka's way of reprimanding her for disappearing, bucause by the time he was done with her she'd done a thousand push ups, fifve hundred jumping jacks, twenty laps around the yard (not an easy feat considering how big the property she lived on was, but she somehow managed) before he finished driving her into the ground.

After that she had dragged herself back into the house (literally) and collapsed onto her bed and somehow managed to go to sleep despite the aches and pains she'd developed from her time with Tanaka and a few hours later she woke up with Tails standing next to her bed with his arms crossed over his chest, his dark blue eyes staring hard at her face.

"What?" She asked in a rough, tired tone as she tried to shift so that she could turn onto her side or something.

"What were you and Sonic doing before you came home?"

"Movie. Brunch. That's pretty much it."

"_Ah_-" Tails said absently as she groaned and flopped back down on her stomach on the bed with a soft hiss. "You look like your in pain."

"I am." She ground out from between clenched teeth. Tails gave her a faint look of amusement and silently climbed onto the bed and straddled her lower back, alarming her a little bit until he put his hands on her shoulders and started to massage them.

"God you're stiff. Did Tanaka give you a chance to stretch and limber up before sparring?" Tails asked with a frown. She grunted and twitched as he used one hand to work on her lower back while placing a hand on the nape of her neck, up under her hair and lightly rubbed the muscles in her neck until she sighed and moved her head under his hand.

"Better now?" Tails asked in a slight tone as he removed his hand from her neck and let her lift herself up onto her elbows and pop her neck before replying.

"Much better, thank you..." Then asked curiously. "So why do you seem so mad at Sonic?" Tails stiffened a fraction and slowly removed himself from her lower back and sighed. It wasn't that he was mad at Sonic per-say. It was more like he knew Sonic was developing more than a little bit of a _crush_ on Chris and soon his instincts would cause him to do something...well, stupid.

And Tails was worried that it might land Sonic in trouble that could damage their relationship with Chris. "I'm not mad at him-" Tails said after a second or so as Chris pushed herself upright a little bit. "I'm a little _irked_ because he's been monopolizing your time with the rest of us. But I'm not actually mad at him." Chris hummed.

"If that's true then why did you get into a fight with him earlier today?"

"Because he's stubborn and refuses to listen to reason-" Tails said evasively as he looked away and asked in a tentative tone. "What do you think of Sonic? In a...romantic sense..."


	23. Simulation

Decode-23

Simulation

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"R-Romantic?" Rissa stammered as she blushed a little bit. Tails nodded his head, his expression somber. He'd expected Chris to be more shocked, or perhaps even _appalled_ by any thoughts of Sonic in a romantic sense. But obviously he'd been mistaken.

She didn't seem the least bit shocked or appalled. If anything she seemed sort of..._curious_.

_Hn, intresting._ Tails thought as Chris seemed to mull over his question, but had yet to actually answer him. Which was understandable considering that she needed to consider everything carefully before saying anything.

Especially since having a relationship with Sonic would be difficult for her because they were both of different species.

There were people who hated Sonic and everything that he stood for, and since Chris was still fairly young _and_ human, she would be condsidered a weakness for anyone out to get a piece of the blue hedgehog.

Eggman, military people, hell even other Mobians like himself and Tails, would seek Chris out for the sole purpose of hurting him. And Tails knew that the best way to do that would be to _hurt_ Chris.

Because Mobians had peculiar needs, their mating habits differed from humans. One way it differed was the depth of feeling that they held for their mates. Sonic, Tails guessed was one of the increasingly rare type that bonded himself to his mate in various ways.

It didn't just happen through intimacy. Though that itself played a small part... Tails thought for a moment then frowned some. Were human's even compatable to be mates to their kind? He wondered before deciding that he would have to find out by testing Chris's reaction to being petted since anything more than that would probably cause Sonic to kill him since it was usually up to the friends of the Mobian seeking to mate, to see if the mate would react to certain stimuli like they should.

In some cases a Mobian's friends or even their family would hold an experiment with the one their friend sought to mate with and in a few cases they would fuck the one they were experimenting with. To see if they were capable of bearing young for their friend, and to see if they were capable of other things. And while Tail's personally thought that it would be a very bad idea to fuck Chris just to see if she was capable of bearing young for one of their species and such, he would still need to to an experiment.

Especially since Chris had still not answered him.

"Chris, do you trust me?" Tails asked suddenly a plan already forming in his mind. The girl looked a bit startled at his question but nodded her head. Tails smiled at her, happy that she trusted him then told her to lay down on the bed with her hands at her sides. She blinked at him. A puzzled expression on her face but slowly did as he asked.

"Okay, I'm going to try a little something-" Chris tensed up a little bit and Tails reached out and gently ran his fingers through her hair to try and get her to relax for him. "Don't tense up. I'm just going to try and help you determine if you would be able to be with Sonic." She opened her mouth to ask him what he meant and he quickly covered her mouth and gave her an impatient look.

"What I mean, assuming that that was your question- Is that Mobians are different from humans in more than just one or two ways. Sure we can walk upright and talk and reason like you, but essentually we are _animals_. When we mate, many of us lose our ability to show restraint. Sonic would be no different if the two of you decided to be intimate. Often times we use our fangs, claws and anything else attached to our bodies to pin down and hold our mates until we are done. If that were to happen, would you be able to withstand what would be done to you?"

She blinked at him, not really registering his words. Tails sighed and removed his hand from her mouth and said, "This will be a simulation to see if you can. I won't hurt you Chris, but I won't lie to you either. Depending on how things go you may end up with a few claw marks or even a bite mark or two."

Chris used the tip of her tongue to wet her lips. "H-H-How are you going to do this?"

Tails lifted his gloved hands to his mouth and used his sharp little teeth to pull the gloves off and laid them aside and sighed before saying, "Very carefully." He would have to exercise a considerable amount of restraint if he was going to do this right without hurting her.


	24. Essentially Animals

Decode-24

Essentially Animals

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Tails set his gloves on the bed next to one of his legs and then took the time to bite off at least three of his claws, doing his best to make them blunt then looked down at Chris. She was laying there with her eyes squeezed tightly closed, her body tense.

Damn. She was already freaking on him and he hadn't even laid a hand on her yet.

"Calm down Chris. I'll walk you through this step by step so you'll know what is going to happen, but I need you to relax of you could end up hurt." Tails said.

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. "You wouldn't hurt me." He half snorted at that. Had she already forgotten what he'd told her a few moments ago. They _were_ essentially animals. And while it was true that he wouldn't hurt her on purpose. If he lost his sense of self at any time during the simulation, he could easily wind up hurting her and damaging their friendship without meaning too.

"True. But remember what I said earlier."

"I remember." Chris said.

Tails nodded and said nothing for a moment as he studied her then finally said. "Okay for this to work you need to lose some of your clothes." She got a slightly alarmed look on her face and he mentally kicked himself before quickly adding. "Not all of them! You just need to lose the top layer, you can keep the bottom layer on."

She flushed and looked uncomfortable but slowly got up to do as he said. Her hands were shaking, he noted as she pulled her shirt up over her head and then cast him an anxious look before he waved one hand at her to get her to go ahead and ditch her pants and cocked his head at her choice of under garment. Not that he was compalining any.

The black spandex shorts showed off the curves of her hips, the inside of her thighs and her butt rather nicely. Though the bandages that she was wearing over her chest to flatten her breasts and keep them from being noticed, raised an eyebrow. How had he not felt those under her clothes earlier? He wondered.

As soon as she let her clothes fall to the floor she looked at him and put one hand against her chest and asked, "Do I need to get rid of these?"

"Are you wearing a bra?" Tails answered her question with one of his own.

She nodded her head and he gave her a pointed look to indicate that she should lose the bandages and watched her untie them and carefully unwind them from around her chest. Sure enough she was wearing a bra. One of those weird strapless ones made up of black lace.

Once that was done he patted the mattress, indicating that she should lay back down.

She did so without question as he started to tell her about the second part of the simulation. "Okay Chris, the next part should make things easier on you. Basically it's a combination of hypnosis and petting. The hypnosis will help you relax and react more honestly to what is done to you. It won't hurt. And once I'm done I'll put my hand on your shoulder and bring you out of it."

"Most of what I'll do is talk you through how Sonic would be if you mated with him. But if you have trouble picturing what I describe to you, I'll have to help you out with the petting I mentioned before. Think you can handle that?" Tails asked. Chris looked uncomfortable again but nodded her head.

Tails gave her what he hoped was an encouraging smile and put one of his hands in front of her face and gently covered her eyes and started to put her under, speaking softly until he had her completely under before removing his hand from her eyes.

"Okay to start off- can you feel this?" Tails asked as he reached out and ran the palm of one hand along her throat, the feel of his fur causing her to shiver.

Tails chuckled, "I'll take that as a yes. Now, moving on. Sonic's species does something known as anointing. Anointing is when a hedgehog will lick and bite something with a particular scent to it. If he's as interested in you as you seem to be in him then anointing would be unavoidable if he likes the scent of your body then it's natural that he'll want to carry the same scent on himself. There would be any number of ways he could get your scent but licking here-" Tails slipped one hand between her legs and ran his fingertips along the crotch of her shorts.

Rissa twitched then lifted her hips up off of the bed a little bit, trying to keep contact but Tails pulled back and used one hand to push her hips back down onto the bed. "Calm down. Your too tightly wound and we've only just started."

He waited patiently for her to settle down before moving on.

"Sonic is built a little differently than the rest of us. I'm sure that you've noticed his sheath at some point. His fur is dark and it's pretty small and easily hidden by his fur but once he's aroused and his dick is out, he would be about six or seven inches in length and about as big as your wrist in width. His lovemaking would start playful. There would be plenty of petting and rubbing and grinding. Then things would get a mite more intense. More insistant. He'd bite down on your shoulder, possibly breaking the skin-" Tails said as he leaned over her and bit down on the spot where her neck and shoulder met.

Causing her to come up off of the bed with a scream as Tails gripped her upper arms and gently eased her back onto the bed where she lay shaking and twitching, her face flushed a vivid pink. "Are you scared?" Tails asked, feeling just a bit worried that he'd accidentally hurt her.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Sonic had been on his way down to Chris's room from the roof when he heard Chris scream and automatically jumped down to the patio outside of her bedroom and looked through the sliding glass door, his expression dark, his lips peeled back from his teeth in a silent snarl that died when he caught sight of Tails on Chris's bed with her.

She was only half dressed and had a vacant look on her face as Tails lifted his head from her shoulder and gently laid her back onto the bed, absently running one hand over the red mark that he'd left on Chris's skin.

_What the hell?_ Sonic thought in shock as Chris lay on the bed shaking and twitching before it occurred to Sonic what Tails was doing. He started to reach for the door so that he could go inside and jerk a knot in Tails's two bushy tails but stopped himself.

As much as he wanted to hurt Tails for doing what he was doing, he didn't dare interrupt him now. Not when he was curious about the outcome. Besides, Tails didn't seem to have hurt Chris other wise she'd be crying or calling for help, right?

He leaned his shoulder against the brick nest to the door and continued to watch just in case Tails lost himself and started to go too far.

(*************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

She shook her head no and he was about to ask her if she wanted to stop when he caught a whiff of something that he vaguely recognized. The scent was a bit off and the texture was also a mite off but he knew the scent of cum when he smelled it and gaped at her in shock. _Jesus Christ-_ She'd just cum! From being bitten!

_Really? _Tails thought, bemused by this turn of events before sighing and reaching out and laying his hand on her shoulder to bring her out of the trance he'd put her in. Oh yeah, she was compatible with their species alright.

She blinked and looked at him, a questioning look on her face. "Tails?"

"Yeah."

"W-What happened?"

He opened his mouth to say something then abruptly snapped it closed and grabbed his gloves as he heard the sliding glass door open and turned his head as Sonic stepped in and gave him a dark look. _And that would be my cue to leave before he gets violent._ Tails thought before waving bye to Chris and scrambling off of the bed and running for the door.

The second that he closed the door behind him Sonic walked over to the bed and quietly sat down on the edge of the mattress as Chris sat up and looked around with a dazed look on her face. "You shouldn't have let him do that." He said in a chidding tone as he reached out and wound a strand of her red hair around his fingers. She looked at him warily and waited for the rest of the lecture she knew was coming when he surprised her by asking.

"Are you okay? Your shaking a bit."

"I think I'm okay." She said after a moment or so of silence, her mind still felt a bit muddled.

"Are you sure?" Sonic asked, his tone rougher than usual. She nodded her head and jumped a little bit when he let go of her hair and reached out and dragged her into his lap and hugged her. "You're not sore? In pain? Anything?"

Again she shook her head and he sighed, some of his anger melting away though he still planned to knock Tails teeth down his throat later. He rubbed her back and shoulders, trying to stop her shaking. The smell of her skin was giving off pheromones like crazy. Partially clouding his mind with lust.

His skin tingled and his cock started to come out of it's sheath and he squirmed a bit uncomfortably before deciding that it would be in his best interest to leave before Chris noticed his hard on. He stood up and put her down on the bed and quickly made his way out of the room.

He needed to get away from her before he did something stupid. And he knew exactly where he was going to go to blow off some steam.


	25. Fight between Friends

Decode-25

Fighting with Tails

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Tails never saw Sonic coming. But then he rarely did when Sonic ran at him full speed. In fact he barely had time to make out the blue blur heading for him after busting his loft door open. The only thing he knew was that one second he was turning to see what had caused his door to bang open. And the next a fist connected with the underside of his chin, snapping his head back on his neck as his mind finally registered- _Ah, there's Sonic. _

He staggered back away from the blue blur and gnashed his teeth in frustration before popping his neck and lowering his head so that he was looking at his friend.

Sonic's expression was one that he'd never seen before. The expression he often wore when staring down Eggman. It was dark and menacing as Sonic fisted his hand and popped his knuckles. "Ah, that feels better." Sonic said in a low growling tone as he glared at Tails.

The two circled each other for a moment, each one knowing that they were going to have a little go around. Sonic was pissed because he felt that Tails had overstepped his bounds. And Tails felt that Sonic was being an idiot but if he wanted to fight then the little fox would oblige him. "What the hell did you think you were doing laying your hands on Chris?"

"I thought that someone should see if she was compatible with our kind. What are you doing here?"

Sonic gave him a sadistic smile. "I came here to beat the hell out of you."

"You didn't stay with Chris." Tails said curiously. Wondering just how stupid his friend was. When a gal like Chris was giving off pheromones like mad, you didn't leave her. You stayed and took care of your business. Then if she wanted you to leave- you left. Duh.

Sonic's expression darkened even more and he growled warningly, his temper about to make a sudden and nasty appearance that could cause Tails to lose a few teeth and possibly a large amount of blood and fur. "What I do or do not do with Chris is no concern of yours whelp." Sonic hissed from between clenched teeth as he jabbed at Tails with one fist to distract him so that he could nail him with the other.

Tails anticipated the move though and the second his fist was about a scant inch form his face, wrapped one of his two tails around Sonic's wrists and used it to jerk Sonic off balance and nail him in the stomach with his knee forcing the air from Sonic's lungs a second before he bared his teeth and jumped on him alternating between biting, pulling his fur and punching him where ever he could while Tails did the same.

"Fucker! I could cheerfully murder you for what you did!" Sonic growled as Tails grabbed him and flipped him so that he could get on top of him and straddled his chest and hissed.

"Dumbass bastard. I was trying to help."

"If I needed your help I'd ask for it shit for brains!" Sonic spat as he lifted his legs and wrapped them around Tails neck and pulled him back without completely removing him. Tails made a choking sound and dug his claws into Sonic's stomach causing the hedgehog to snarl something rude about Tails's mother as his skin split open and blood seeped out of the wounds. And Tails thrashed around for a second before wrapping his tails around Sonic'sthroat and started to squeeze in the hoped that Sonic would pass out so he could escape.

Don't get him wrong, Tails wasn't scared of Sonic even when he was at his throat. But he knew that he was outclassed this time and would need to put some distance between them before Sonic wound up accidentally killing him.

Which in turn would kill Sonic due to the guilt he would feel.

Sonic bucked under him and snapped at him with his fangs while trying to pull his tails from his neck before he seemed to settle down and let his legs drop away from Tails's neck. Tails coughed a few times and rubbed his bruised throat and just sat there for a moment breathing before punching him in the shoulder and growling.

"Moron..." Before continuing between pants. "I wasn't trying to hurt Chris or you. I didn't want you jumping into the unknown with both feet without knowing if Chris was compatible. God knows that if you wound up hurting her, you'd suffer more than you've ever suffered before... You would _long_ for death." Tails flattened his ears back against his head, his tails slipping from around Sonic's throat to thrash around behind him in agitation.

Sonic lay perfectly still under him and just stared at him. Part of him knowing that Tails was telling the truth. He hadn't been trying to hurt him or Chris. But it still bothered him deeply that he'd laid his hands on her. He felt like Tails was trying to secretly steal her from him before he even had the chance to make his feelings known.

It wasn't a pleasant thought. In fact it pissed him off greatly. But if Tails said that he wasn't trying to cause harm then Sonic was inclined to believe him whether he was feeling rational or not. "Why did you leave her?" Tails asked all of a sudden, startling Sonic slightly with his question.

"She was giving off pheromones... God she smelled so sweet."

Tails gave him a small wary smile. "She did, didn't she?"

Sonic took one last swipe at him for smelling Chris's scent as Tails moved off and away from him, chuckling before Sonic said somberly. "I wasn't sure if I'd be able to hold back. Her scent was so strong that it was overwhelming my senses."

"So you ran."

"So what if I did?"

"You should have stayed." Tails said in a chidding tone as Sonic pushed himself upright.

"I know but I just-"

"Wanted to escape? Beat my skull against something until it cracked open?" Sonic shrugged. It was difficult to talk to Tails about matters such as mating due to his age.

But that didn't really matter now since Sonic had probably missed his window of opportunity with Chris anyways. "You're not going to start moping around now are you?" Tails asked Sonic in an aghast tone. Sonic flushed and looked away, suddenly feeling awkward as Tails sighed and put one hand on his shoulder and used it to help himself up as he said.

"You know, Chris might still be-" Sonic turned his head and gave the fox a mean look. Oh he so did not want to go there with him right now. Tails cringed a little bit and patted Sonic on the back. "Why don't you go see? It couldn't hurt anything." Sonic nodded and got up, winching slightly at the sharp aches and pains in his body where Tails had gotten him.

He'd have to start being smarter about picking fights with the fox since he was starting to get the impression that he was a sadist.


	26. Can't fight this feeling

Decode-26

Can't fight this feeling

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Once Sonic was back in Chris's room he found her on the floor, trembling almost violently. She looked up at him and flushed a nice vivid pink as he stopped just a foot or so from her and squatted down, the stong scent of her pheromones hitting him like a tidal wave, almost knocking him over as she stamered. "I- I g-g-got up t-t-to g-o a-af-ter you a-and-"

He made a strained sound and reached out and ran his hand along the curve of her cheek. Understanding what she was trying to say. He could smell her reason for her being on the floor almost as strongly as he could sense her need.

Shifted so that he could pick her up he ignored the stinging and throbbing of his wounds as he scooped her up and then straightened to his full height, cradling her in his arms and carried her over to the bed and set her down on it and saying, "Give me a second to do something about the bites and scratch wounds and I'll be back to take care of you."

Rissa blinked at him as wondered what he meant when he leaned in close to her and licked the side of her throat before brushing his lips across the corner of her lips. Her eyes went wide and her breath hitched in her throat. Oh. _Oh!_ Did he mean-

He stepped away from her and gave her a sizzling look that made her heart studder in her chest before he walked away. _Well, I suppose that answers that_ _question._ She thought in wary amusment as she looked down at herself. Suddenly feeling self conscious about her body and what he had planned for it as she heard the sink turn on in the bathroom and listened to the various sounds of Sonic going through her stuff.

He must have been in the bathroom for close to ten minutes before she heard the tap being turned off and a second later he stepped out and into the bedroom and looked at her. Some of his fur was wet and smelling strongly of rubbing alchohol.

He looked at her, his emerald eyes looking her over as he walked towards the bed until he was standing right in front of her and leaned in and kissed her as he put his hands on her legs and gently pried them apart so that he could move closer to her and stand between her legs and slid his hands up to grip her hips. He pulled back a little bit and asked curiously. "What did Tails tell you earlier about what to expect?"

"I-I- Something about anointing and-" Rissa went quiet and flushed.

There was no way that she was going to tell him that Tails had mentioned his size..._down there_. Though she was tempted to ask him if he was as big as Tails had said. Frankly she felt the fox might be off by an inch or so in length.

Sonic waved a hand in front of her face and she jerked and looked at him. He had the most peculiar look on his face. A cross between arousal and curiosity. "And?" He prompted as he trailed one of his hands along her stomach before settling it over one of her breasts and pushed her back so that she was laying on her back on the bed and chuckled before climbing onto the bed and straddling her hips.

Rissa shook her head no and thinned her lips, refusing to say more as Sonic hummed.

"He told you about anointing huh. Well that sort of makes things a bit easier. You don't mind if I get rid of your shorts and such right?" Sonic asked.

Rissa swallowed past the lump in her throat and slowly shook her head no. He gave her a hooded look and leaned down and buried his face against her throat and inhaled deeply, noting the spike in her pheromone levels.

His skin tingled and he could feel his cock hardening as it slipped from his sheath and pressed against her stomach.

He pulled back and tuggeded her bra down away from her breasts and frowned as he palmed them and wondered how the hell she had managed to hide them before he leaned down and licked one of her nipples. His tongue rough against her soft skin, making her cry out and squirm under him causing him to hiss as he body rubbed against his aching length.

He groaned and sealed his mouth over hers. Licking along the seam of her lips, trying to coax her into opening for him. He felt her part her lips for him and made a strained sound in the back of his throat as he took advantage of the opening and slid his tongue into her mouth to explore the moist cavern.

She reached up and gripped his shoulders, her small sharp fingernails digging into his flesh a little bit as he stole her breath before tearing his mouth from hers so that he could lick and suck her breasts again. He alternated between the soft mounds. Teasing the sensitive flesh until she was keening under him before kissing his way down her body as he hooked his fingers in her shorts and pulled them and her panties down her long legs until he had them off of her. And she was completely exposed to his gaze.

He ran his hands along her body, exploring every dip and curve- Commiting it all to memory. "Oh Chris-"

"R-Rissa." She said in a slightly shakey tone. His eyes flickered up to her face, his expression questioning as she said. "M-My name is Rissa. Chris is just a nickname that I go by." She wasn't sure what possessed her to tell him her real name when the illusion that she'd created for everyone relied so heavily on her staying in character as her brother.

Maybe it was how he said her name. Or maybe she just wanted him to call her by her real name for once. She didn't know. But now that it was out in the open there was no turning back.

Sonic nodded his head and said her name as he slipped one of his hands between her legs. And rubbed his gloved hand along her wet, silken folds causing her breath to hitch in her throat and make a strained sound before he pulled his hand away and suddenly dropped down onto his stomach between her legs and ran his tongue along the same path his fingers had just traveled.

He licked and nipped and sucked on the most sensitive part of her body until she was writhing and sobbing. Her fingers gripping the thick blue fur inbetween his ears. She was close to cumming again. He could taste it on the juices on his tongue. Which was why he pulled away before she could cum, wanting her to finish with him inside of her.

She whimpered in disappointment as he raised himself back up onto his knees and wiped some of her juices away from his mouth while licking his lips to catch the rest. "Are you ready for me?" He asked after a moment or so as he gazed down at her from beneath hooded lids.

Rissa didn't know what to tell him. Her body felt overly warm, her breasts and pussy aching. She watched Sonic take his cock in one hand and brush the tip along her slit and hissed as he slowly pushed the tip in before growling. "Fuck you're tight. I'm not sure if I can get in."

Rissa lifted her hips up off of the mattress a little bit and Sonic nearly came right then and there as his cock slid deeper inside of her. The new angle helping her body take him inch by inch until he came to her hymen and paused, his mind reeling in shock as he looked at her face.

He'd heard that humans prized their innocence above all things- Some even prized it so much that they would rather _die_ than offer it to someone that didn't care about them. Someone that they felt was unworthy.

Did Rissa's offering mean that she felt he was worthy of her? He wondered as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down so that she could kiss him. And he let her because he felt lost in this moment, uncertain of whether he should continue or leave her. He pulled back a little bit, breaking the kiss and started to ask her what she wanted him to do when she lifted her legs and locked them around him at the ankle and pulled him deeper.

He felt her innocence being breached and blanched a bit under his fur, worried that he may be doing irreperable damage to her in some way as he caught the look of pain that crossed her face as he found himself completely sheathed inside of her.

"Christ Rissa-" He hissed as he gripped the bed sheets tightly in his hands and shuddered as he tried to withdraw from her, but the friction was too much for him and he wound up pulling back only an inch before pushing back in.

Rissa gasped and tightened her arms and legs around him, restricting his movements and asked for him to wait a minute or so. He nodded and settled himself on his elbows over her and kissed her lips, her cheeks, her eye lids- Trying his damndest to be patient and let her adjust to him and was surprised when she finally loosened her legs and told him to move.

He started out slowly, not wanting to hurt her further and moved at a simple, easy pace while watching her face for any signs of pain or discomfort and upon finding neither he picked up the pace a bit.

Rissa gripped his shoulders and scored his upper arms with her fingernails as she lifted her hips to meet his thrusts and moaned. He kissed her lips again as the last remnants of his control finally snapped. He thrust harder, faster- His cock pushing so deeply inside of her that it was hitting her womb as her body constricted around him and she screamed as some fluid covered his cock.

He nearly stopped, his surprise was so great. He'd never had a girl cum for him like this. In fact most of the females he fucked didn't cum at all until he started to pull out of them.

But then Rissa wasn't a mere fuck. She was special to him.

He _adored_ her. He couldn't get enough of her. Her voice, her smile, her scent, her body and her kisses- Everything about her was like a drug that went straight to his head. It pounded in his blood, in his heart and mind and soul.

He loved her.

The realization hit him hard, almost like a ton of bricks dropping from the sky upon his head. He kissed her hard on the lips, their teeth and tongues clashing as he kept thrusting inside of her. He kept her cumming. Never once easing up. He wanted this to be a night that she would always remember. He felt the tension in himself coiling tighter and tighter and tighter until he couldn't take anymore.

He ripped off his gloves and threw them...god knows where and slipped his arms under and around her, jerking her up off of the bed so that she was held tightly against him. His claws scoring her back, his teeth at the place where he'd seen Tails bite her earlier as he ground himself against her as he started cumming.

She cried out, whether it was from pain or pleasure he didn't know. He'd find out later once he finished.

Rissa couldn't believe how good Sonic felt against her, inside of her- she was on full sensory overload from everything he was doing to her as she felt something hot spilling into her body and for a moment stopped breathing. He was cumming! She could fill his seed spilling into her womb, filling her to the brink. Part of her wanted to push him away, worried that he might get her pregnant but the other part of her- the part of her that was wild for him and wanted him and his seed wouldn't let her.

She simply had no strength left to fight so she simply wrapped her arms around him and rubbed his back and waited for him to finish.

Afterwards when Sonic was done he seemed to come to his senses and realize what he was holding her too tightly and loosened his arms, carefully running his ungloved hands along the tender skin of her back so that he didn't hurt her further while making a mental note to check her back to see how badly his claws had gotten her.

He groaned and shifted a bit and carefully eased her down so that she was laying on the mattress and looked her over for any signs of pain and wasn't sure what to do when he saw that she was unconscious and dead to the world.


	27. Planning out the next step

I hope this came out well considering how distracted I am.

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Decode-27

Planning out the next step

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The claw marks on Rissa's back had been a sight that Sonic would never forget no matter how long he lived. The scarlet rivlets of bloodrunning along her shoulders and spine had scared him a little bit at first because he wasn't sure how deep the wounds were. But after making sure that he hadn't killed her. Or that the wounds he'd given her during the peak of his passion weren't so deep that she required medical attention.

Once he had done that he'd cleaned her up then slipped from the bed to let her rest and went out onto her terrace and sat down to think since he had much to think about at the moment.

He'd have to have a talk with the others about the new turn in his relationship with Rissa. He'd have to talk things with Rissa too. Otherwise he'd no clue about what she wanted. He figured that as a heiress Rissa was under a lot of pressure and scrutiny from everyone around her for every little thing.

Making her relationship with him public right away could cause trouble for her and her family. Hell, even bing in the same house as her could cause her trouble now that she carried his scent. The others would be able to smell him on her in ways that they hadn't before and for some (Amy) it might trigger territorial instincts and cause her to attack Rissa.

And that was something that Sonic _could_ not and _would_ not tolerate. Anyone (friend, foe, or even a random stranger) that sought to harm his mate was in for a very swift, and vicious; rude awakening.

He lifted his bare hand to his mouth and started to chew on his thumbnail anxiously. God there was so much ground to cover and he wasn't sure where to start. He heard the faint sounds of movement and his lifted his head and looked back at the bedroom from over his shoulder.

His ears twitching, he stood up and made his way back into the bedroom to see Rissa trying to push herself upright. "Rissa. Don't move." Sonic said roughly as he made his way to the bed and quickly slipped under the covers so that he could curl up with her and see if that would relax her enough to rest a bit more.

She looked at him with a slightly pained expression on her pretty face as he wrapped his arms around her slender waist and pulled her against him and pressed his ear against her chest, forcing her to lay back down. "Sonic!" She squeaked as her back touched the mattress again.

"Hm?" Sonic hummed as he listened to the soft thudding under his ear as she squirmed around a little bit. Probably in discomfort due to the claw marks.

"Where were you?" Rissa asked after a moment or so of silence.

"Outside. Thinking. Why do you ask?" Sonic wondered aloud as he turned his head just so and glanced up at her.

"No reason. I just wondered why I was alone."

"Ah. Well, I wanted you to rest a bit longer while I thought so I put some distance between us to keep myself from touching you again. Especially after the way I tore up your back. If we kept going I might seriously hurt you."

"Oh. Well that's very thoughtful." Rissa said, her mind still not functioning as it should.

"Don't thank me, Rissa. It was careless of me to use my claws on you to begin with. The wounds may not be deep enough to warrent medical attention, but they are deep enough to scar and cause you some serious discomfort-" Sonic said as he lifted his body up a little bit and kissed the spot between her breasts, right over her heart before asking. "Do you need anything?"

Rissa was quiet for a moment as he stared down at her. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to kiss her but when she felt his hands grip the sheets on either side of her shoulders, his claws tearing at the fabric then she understood how much self control he was exercising for her sake and sighed and said softly. "A couple of asprin."

"How many?"

Rissa got quiet again and focused on the painful throbbing in her back and then held up three fingers. Sonic captured her hand in his and kissed her palm then let go of her hand and vanished in a blur to go get what she had asked for.

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_He dropped the limp teen in his grasp and grabbed the knife sticking out of his shoulder and unceremoniously jerked it free and threw it at the young man sitting on the throne like chair twenty feet away. It hit the wood of the chair next to Teiger's head and shook so hard that it vibrated the whole chair. _

_Teiger turned his head a little bit to the left and glanced at the bloody blade then at the man before him. My but he had a dangerous streak in him. Which was perfect for the upcoming fighting tournament. _

_Teiger clapped his hands and slowly rose from his throne. "Well, well color me impressed. When I put the word out that we were looking for some new blood around here I never thought that we'd get someone like you." _

_"Yeah?" _

_"Yeah. Though I'm just a mite curious about why you're here. Our group doesn't regularly deal with anyone over twenty." _

_"Maybe I just like fighting." Chris said as he stared the younger man down. _

_"Or maybe you're after something." Teiger said before chuckling. "Not to worry, friend. I'll figure you out soon enough. Until then welcome to the gang." _

_"Well, it's about time." Chris muttered under his breath as he walked over to his discarded jacket and bent down at the waist and picked it up and slipped it on while ignoring the pain in his shoulder. He would have to get used to the sensation of physical pain if he was going to save his Rissa._


	28. Lack of control

Decode-28

Lack of control

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A few days later-

Sonic woke up with his body curled around Rissa's, his hands gripping her- one on her hip the other on her breast- and he was still buried inside of her. Oh god, had they fallen asleep like this? He wondered as he nuzzled her long red hair away from her shoulder so that he could lick at the bite mark that he'd placed there sometime last night.

The area was still red and raw looking, probably because he hadn't been able to keep himself from using his fangs on her.

It wasn't like he had meant to draw blood, but for some reason when he had her under him and was in the height of his passions; he just couldn't seem to help himself.

Her blood was like a drug to him.

The second he tasted it, he came so hard that _she_ fainted from it and _he_ saw stars. Although last night he'd swear that he went from seeing stars to a whole damn galaxy. Complete with it's own milky way and everything.

Not that he minded any. But at some point he'd have to learn to control himself better. Rissa couldn't keep being torn up by his claws and fangs. It simply wasn't healthy for her.

As it was he'd kept her in bed for the past few days to let her heal from the first time they'd been together. But then it had occurred to him that she was going to be laying around, naked in her bed for several days and well- his hormones had gone and sort of taken every good intention he'd had and kicked them out the window.

But that didn't mean that he hadn't been taking care of her.

When she was sore, he fixed a warm bath for her to soak in. When she was bleeding, he patched her up and then went out to get her flowers to apologize to her for being so rough with her person when she was probably still hurting from the first few times they had been together.

When she was hungry- he got her food and fed her from his own hand... He did everything that he could possibly think of to make her comfortable while trying to satisfy his raging need for her body without harming her more.

Still- it shamed him that he continued to lose his cool with her.

He ran his tongue over the bite wound a few more times, licking the blood dried on her skin away so that he could better access the damage his fangs had done while shifting the hand that had been covering her breast, up, to stroke her silken hair as he raised up on one elbow and looked her over.

His poor girl, she looked so tired to him. Not that he could fault her for that. Not when he had been keeping her from properly resting. "I really do need to learn to keep my hands to myself." He muttered to himself as his ears flattened back against his head.

Rissa didn't move. Didn't twitch. In all honesty if not for the fact that she was breathing he'd think he had killed her.

Leaning his head down a little bit he nuzzled her cheek then kissed her temple and whispered, "Stay here and rest while I go out." And with that he slowly withdrew his cock from inside of her, noting that even _that_ didn't cause her to stir, and then after pulling the covers up over her shoulders to make sure that she didn't get cold, he went to bathe.

Then shortly after that- he was gone.


End file.
